1950:
Council tears down Chinatown to put up a parking lot
Back in the day, cars mattered more than someone else's culture
1995:
Chinatown Historical District is formed
Consists of parking lot, and four historical buildings
Chinatown Historical District Sign (Photo courtesy of Elliot Gong)
2006:
One of the four historical buildings is demolished so Hotel San Luis Obispo's "50,000-square-foot footprint would not be diminished by 1,000 square feet of Shanghai Low at the top left corner" (Papp).
2019:
Two of SLO County's goals are a car-free city, and reaching carbon neutrality
Yet the proposed first step is to demolish a historic building to create a REP Theater and 400 parking space garage
The Environmental Impact Report states the REP Theater cannot be built "unless the historic Heyd Adobe (which takes up a 10th of the site) is demolished" (Papp).
Placing the REP theater somewhere else was not considered
Relocating the Heyd Adobe elsewhere was not considered
Works Cited
Papp, James. “SLO Tore down Chinatown to Put up a Parking Lot. Now a Historic Adobe May Have to Go Too.” Sanluisobispo, San Luis Obispo Tribune, www.sanluisobispo.com/opinion/readers-opinion/article237182648.html.