Korean Food Bazaar tomorrow in Shadyside

                                      

10:30 to 4:00 at the Korean Central Church of Pittsburgh 

The Korean Central Church of Pittsburgh 
821 S. Aiken Ave.
 Shadyside, Pa 15232 412-687-7775

Some of Pittsburgh's food festivals seem overhyped but I grew up in areas of Queens with huge Korean populations and rarely had food this good! Homemade kimchi, rice cakes, pancakes, dumplings, Korean barbeque and all kinds of other great things. Also, quality packaged foods like jarred kimchi. Get there early, cause they run out of many dishes.

 Also enjoy the beauty of this church and the neighborhood around it.

In Reality, Both Major Parties are Against Rational, Open, Legal Immigration

As you know, this blog is not against political posts providing they relate closely to issues that impact the region, cultural or urban issues. Few are more important than immigration.

The Democrat party got a lot of traction painting the GOP as a xenophobic, old white, anti immigrant party, since Republicans almost never interacted in urban areas, and created a campaign based mostly on winning rural and exurban votes, they pretty much walked into that stereotype. They seemed to be not just against massive illegal immigration, but against almost all newcomers.

In public discourse the concept of legal immigration has been dropped almost entirely.

The dirty little secret is that Obama's record isn't one of supporting, open, legal immigration, particularly among the highly skilled people every economy desperately needs.

From Forbes:

"The Obama administration has worked to limit H-1B accessibility since the president assumed office. The stimulus package prohibited most major financial firms from participating in the program, and in 2010, the administration increased fees as much as $2,300. Over the same period, USCIS began to deny record numbers of applications—rising from 11 percent in 2007 to between 17 and 29 percent under this administration."
 

How bad is it? America is actually harassing and deporting entrepreneurs that have already created companies and jobs.

From CNN Money:

"Darash, 38, originally came here from Israel for college and returned in 2010 to launch Regpack, a software company in San Francisco. It's growing so fast, the company already needs to add another 10 workers.

But instead of focusing on expanding his company, Darash has been fighting to stay in the country."

  

 A recent study showed that immigrants account for 76% of patents filed at the nations top schools.  You would think we would have a red carpet out for people like this?

From CNN Money

That year, 54% of those patents came from students, postdoctoral fellows or staff researchers. That's an issue, because the United States is losing ground against other nations by pushing out immigrant graduates seeking to launch their own businesses.

Few options exist for those who want to stay in the country legally, and the most common route -- finding another company to sponsor your visa -- goes against the entrepreneur's mission.

 

Honestly, a country has to be pretty arrogant and delusional to think it can get away with treating potential job creators like this.

One can hope that a more rational, adult discussion of the issue develops. This is a short post, I don't mean to imply we should only be open to the super talented, educated or wealthy. We need a top to bottom reform that opens up a clear legal process for a broad group of hard working, striving people.

 

Organizations Plan to Give Cleveland Area Homes To Immigrants

I gotta admit to not knowing many details about this but I have a few thoughts, both positive and negative.

The solution is The Discovering Home Program, which is a joint effort by the Cuyahoga Land Bank and the International Services Center.

Together, they want to turn neighborhoods around by offering struggling immigrants housing. The refugees will have to agree to fix them up. The hope is that families will take great pride in their homes and help stabilize neighborhoods. Many believe it is a win-win situation

.

Right off the bat, I'm impressed by any efforts in the Cleveland area to not just obsess over everyone leaving, but attract new residents. Any thinking in that direction is a big plus.

I also, see that ownership is to be gained by fixing up the homes. Here, I have some pretty strong doubts. If no cash investment of any kind is made, one is likely to repeat the same kind of easy come-easy go buyers with no equity that helped create the housing mess. Remember that in many cases, you will be asking people to move into shaky and damaged communities in a region with abundant low cost housing.

I have doubts that incentives like this will draw people who find the homes and neighborhoods of real value since price alone is the main draw.

Contrast that, for example with efforts to attract artists who see the benefits of living in a place with lots of other creatives.

That being said, many larger immigrant families would fit well with single family housing stock.

More Shots Of Immigrant NYC

Queens



Brooklyn

Here are a few more shots I took in NYC of the incredibly diverse neighborhoods in Brooklyn and Queens.

I didn't go out of my way to get these. Sorry if the shots are "stereotypical" in any way--most photography, edits the world according to what the photographer wants to show. While places like this are very common in Brooklyn and Queens, there are also many places in which the ethnic shifts are far more subtle. Not all new immigrants are "poor", and many like South Asians have often live in more suburban type neighborhoods. Not everyone is shopping or living in an "ethnic" neighborhood.

Another thing these pictures hint at is the vast network of underground and below the radar jobs-from street vending, to gypsy cabs, childcare, landscaping and contracting that help employ so many.

One more point--Yes NYC, is growing-but obviously with influxes like this, very large numbers of people must be leaving-or the population would have gone up 400%. No place is perfect for everyone and New York has done so well by continuing to attract new people. Perhaps we can attract some of these folks-or the people who are leaving, or some other group who will find what we have right for them.

New York City Asian Population Tops A Million: Images From Flushing Queens

From The New York Times

"Not so long ago, the phrase “New York’s Chinatown” meant one thing: a district in Lower Manhattan near Canal Street. Now it could refer to as many as six heavily Chinese enclaves around the city

Koreatown was well known as a commercial zone in Midtown Manhattan, but now parts of Flushing, Queens, where tens of thousands of Koreans have moved, feel like suburban Seoul. The city has spawned neighborhoods with nicknames like Little Bangladesh, Little Pakistan, Little Manila and Little Tokyo.

Asians, a group more commonly associated with the West Coast, are surging in New York, where they have long been eclipsed in the city’s kaleidoscopic racial and ethnic mix. For the first time, according to census figures released in April, their numbers have topped one million — nearly 1 in 8 New Yorkers — which is more than the Asian population in the cities of San Francisco and Los Angeles combined."



This area, Flushing, Queens is one the city's emerging ethnic downtowns dominated primarily by a huge Taiwanese/Chinese community and the largest Korean population in the city. Flushing, which is not far from Laguardia Airport, now has many offices and hotels.

As you can see from the images-this is a place of considerable wealth and dynamism.

Under Bloomberg, transit and bus hubs are being rezoned to encourage the development of alternate, business districts to encourage more two way commuting. Although this trend has been going on naturally for a long time.

If you never leave Manhattan, You really don't know New York.

City Of Asylum Working To build North Side Literary Center

Story about City Of Asylum on NewsHour

Been meaning to post something about the efforts to expand on the City Of Asylum project which is near the Mattress Factory.

The total cost of the project is estimated at $3.3 million. The Heinz Endowments, the Richard King Mellon Foundation and The Hillman Foundation have committed $1.5 million in grant money toward the expansion, Mr. Reese said.

"We're combining all of these buildings into one building," he said. "We're hoping to break ground over the summer."

Plans call for building a bookstore, a performance space, rooms for writing workshops, two apartments for writers and a cafe. The new facility will allow the organization to host more events and offer additional programs to the community. Currently, the organization holds one reading each month.

Read more about it

Follow the progress and other news with Sampsonia Way Magazine.