San Francisco Chinatown Grant Avenue 1984  

PreviousIndex pageNext
93(102)
This slide and the next show the opening of a United Bank branch on Pacific and Grant. The building was and is owned by the Chew Lun Association. Association members operated a grocery store (Lun Hing) for some years on the ground floor, this store was later replaced by Ping Yuen Bakery, a favorite hangout for many Chinatown regulars. When the lease came up in the early 1980s, the bank out bid the bakery by a large amount. This was part of a wider process in Chinatown in which banks and jewelry stores were displacing small businesses that served a local clientle. Eventually, a zoning ban on new banks was put in place to slow this trend.
S8409-49