Pagodas and Public Housing: Reexamining "Projects" in San Francisco's Chinatown - A talk by Amy Howard February 11, 2010

Amy Howard is a professor of American Studies at the University of Richmond where she also directs the Bonner Center for Civic Engagement. The theme of engaged citizenship connects Howard’s two current book projects. The first project, More than Shelter: Community and Activism in San Francisco Public Housing, 1938-2000, explores the history of public housing and the complexities of community formation in state-run housing in San Francisco. For her second project, Howard is teaming up with colleague Thad Williamson in the Jepson School of Leadership Studies to examine race, redevelopment, and corporate and grassroots power structures in Richmond from 1970 to the present.
Vertical ghettos, warehouses for the poor, crime dens-these are just a few of the ways scholars and journalists have described public housing in the past fifty years. Despite underfunding, mismanagement, and design flaws, public housing has also served as a community for some tenants. This presentation explores the history of the Ping Yuen public housing project in San Francisco's Chinatown. The location, faux Chinese architectural design, and tenant population of Chinese Americans defies the stereotypical image of public housing. Welcomed by the district and praised locally, nationally, and internationally, Ping Yuen demonstrates the importance of community ties between project residents and the surrounding district. Similarly, the activism of the tenants challenges popular assumptions linking low-income populations with a lack of civic engagement. Their efforts resulted in better homes and improvements to the greater Chinatown community.
Prof. Howard's visit is hosted by the Design, Architecture, and Culture Group of Quadrant, a joint initiative of the University of Minnesota Press and the Institute for Advanced Study. Quadrant is funded by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.

Official Website: http://www.ias.umn.edu/thursdayscals10.php