East Downtown Houston
[1] The community is located east of Downtown Houston and north of Interstate 45 (Gulf Freeway).
The Cantonese opened several businesses, including grocery stores and restaurants, and held Chinese New Year celebrations.
[7] The EaDo Chinatown solidified as many Asian immigrants, including Viet Hoa, began moving to Houston in the 1970s.
[11] By the late 1980s, increasing numbers of Chinese began living in suburbs in Southwest Houston and Fort Bend County.
[12] There were plans from private entities and the city government to promote and assist the development of the old Chinatown, but the economic recession harmed those efforts.
[14] Anthony Knapp and Igor Vojnovic, authors of "Ethnicity in an Immigrant Gateway City: The Asian Condition in Houston," wrote that "Into the early and mid-1990s, Old Chinatown had considerable promise and this was evident in just its role in promoting tourism.
One major street connecting the old Chinatown with Downtown was closed when the Brown Convention Center was expanded.
[16] By the 1990s, many of the East Asian businesses left and had relocated to the new current Chinatown in southwest Houston.
[3] During the same year Dan Nip, a developer and East Downtown Management District board member, encouraged people to invest in the Old Chinatown area in East Downtown; if a person invests $500,000 United States dollars in the Old Chinatown and subsequently creates two jobs for ten years, he or she would become eligible for a EB-5 visa.
[4][20] By late 2009 the East Downtown authority began re-branding the district to reflect its current name.
[14] Helen Anders of the Austin American-Statesman said that EaDo "looks like an art installation, with the steamshiplike George R. Brown Convention Center as a backdrop, skyscrapers lurking in the background and angular new condos set against low-slung warehouses, some of them still in use for industrial storage.
Circa 2013, Gaurav Khandelwal and Apurva Sanghavi, then the owners,[26] planned to establish retail stores and offices there, but did not do so.
[29] They decided to build a temple to Guan Yu (Guandi) after surviving an aggravated robbery,[29] which occurred at their store in the Fifth Ward.
[citation needed] Many of the homeless in the Houston area congregate in East Downtown because of the presence of nearby agencies that provide services (which predate the current redevelopment efforts) and several groups that independently provide food, clothing, toiletries, and other items on nearby vacant lots.
Nearly all Houston non-profit and faith-based agencies which provide services to the homeless, including food and shelter, are located within Downtown and Midtown.
A major shelter for women and children operated by Star of Hope, a faith-based agency, is located on Emancipation Avenue, between Texas & Franklin; the agency operates a men's facility nearby on the west side of US 59, north of Daikin Park.
[citation needed] Some have called for the city of Houston to restrict public sleeping on sidewalks and to regulate charitable serving of food.
[31][32] It remains to be seen whether or not current services to the homeless can continue in East Downtown in the face of ongoing revitalization and redevelopment efforts.
In addition to light rail, Metropolitan Transit Authority of Harris County (METRO) operates bus service through the area.
Terry Grier, the HISD superintendent, argued that Dodson needs to close so another school will be located there while its permanent facility is under construction.
[53] At a later meeting, HISD board member Harvin Moore called for a motion that "the item be tabled indefinitely" meaning the closure is finalized and the matter will not be brought up again; the board voted 5-3 for this matter, and the speakers who were scheduled to speak about the Dodson issue were turned away.
[65][66] The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Galveston-Houston maintains St. Nicholas Church in East Downtown.
