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BROOKLYN WEEKLY, FEBRUARY 9, 2020
BY ROSE ADAMS
The widespread fears
over the deadly coronavirus
have sparked concerns
within Brooklyn’s Chinese
communities — threatening
immigrant businesses
and leaving many residents
homebound, according to
some residents.
“Before anyone dies,
the businesses are going to
die,” said Kenneth Chiu, a
Sunset Park resident and
the president of the New
York City Asian-American
Democratic Club.
The virus fi rst surfaced
in humans during an outbreak
in China’s Wuhan
City late last year, and has
since infected more than
28,000 people worldwide,
and killed over 500 people
thus far — with most victims
residing in Asia, and
only 12 confi rmed cases in
the United States, according
to a Washington Post
report.
Two patients in New
York City who recently
traveled from mainland
China are being tested for
the virus, and are currently
hospitalized in Queens, according
to City Hall.
However, leaders in
Brooklyn’s Chinese communities
say that misinformation
about the illness
has sewn excessive fear
among Chinese residents
— and took the spirit out
of the Lunar New Year season.
“This should be a busy
holiday season. Around
this time of year, businesses
are doing banquets
for the new year,” Chiu
said. “But people just want
to be safe rather than sorry
and it has affected catering
halls, restaurants, eateries.”
Businesses in Flushing,
Queens have been particularly
hard-hit, according to
Chiu, who claimed that revenue
has dropped by “half”
as locals are scared to even
leave their homes.
Last week, reps with the
Flushing Town Hall canceled
the venue’s famous
Lunar New Year Chinese
Temple Bazaar out of fear.
Stores in Sunset Park,
which boasts a large Chinese
population, have suffered
smaller losses because
BY JESSICA PARKS
Sheepshead Bay residents are fuming
over a proposed seven-story hotel slated
for construction on a residential street,
fearing the new building will turn into an
extended stay homeless shelter.
“They are worried about their property
values, worried about the city housing the
homeless in the hotel, and it taking away
limited curbside parking spaces on the
road,” said Community Board 15 Chairwoman
Theresa Scavo.
Queens-based builders with the Michael
Kang Architect fi rm fi led a permit
on Dec. 2 with plans detailing a 72-room
hotel building with three parking spaces
at 2646 E. 18th St, and neighbors aren’t
happy about the prospect of a seven-story
structure towering over their two-story
homes.
“I think it’s crazy honestly. It’s a total
mistake for this area,” said Diane Soffi an-
Yulfo. “It’s the middle of a small, mini
block. It’s not an avenue, nobody knows
where Jerome Street in Brooklyn is.”
Former Community Board 15 chairman
Maurice Kolodin suspects the proposed
the area’s residents
mostly emigrated from
southern China — hundreds
of miles from where
the disease originated, according
to Chiu.
“Sunset Park seems a
lot better,” he said. “But it
seems that business is 25 to
30 percent slower.”
Outside the community,
fear of the virus has fueled
racial misperceptions of
Chinese residents — such
as the idea that Chinese
people who wear medical
face masks may have contracted
the virus themselves,
community leaders
said.
“Some people are trying
to target Chinese people
who wear the mask,” said
Ansen Tang, an employee
Community leaders say that Chinese businesses are suffering
amid the coronavirus scare. Photo by Zoe Freilich
at the United Chinese Association
in Gravesend.
“They just wear them to
prevent getting sick…And
now there’s a fear that if
you wear a mask that people
will give you a look or
stay away from you.”
Sunset Park schools
have also had alarmist reactions
to the virus — sending
Chinese students home
for wearing face masks or
showing faint signs of illness,
Chiu said.
“I hear parents complain
to me that the school
or a teacher sent their kid
home because they’re wearing
a mask, or they sneeze,
or show minor signs of illness,”
he explained.
GOING VIRAL
Coronavirus fears threatening immigrant businesses
hotel’s developers are eyeing a contract
with the city government to house
the city’s homeless population — saying
that he doesn’t see the viability of a third
hotel in the southern Brooklyn neighborhood.
“Are these people looking to contract
with the city for some type of program?”
Kolodin asked. “People don’t just come to
New York City and want to stay at a hotel
in Sheepshead Bay.”
The site, between Jerome and Voorhies
avenues, is situated a block over from the
Sheepshead Bay subway station, which allows
the property to be classifi ed as transient
— and therefore requires less parking
spaces than properties with less access
to public transportation.
And while Scavo said she has heard
from four or fi ve of the property’s neighbors
with concerns about the pending
structure, the hotel is being built as of
right — meaning it is not requesting any
variances, or changes to the zoning code
— and therefore does not require a public
hearing for approval.
Diane Soffi an-Yulfo may have a seven-story hotel building as her new next-door neighbor on E. 18th
Street in Sheepshead Bay. Photo by Meg Capone
CHECK OUT TIME
Developers propose seven-story hotel
for residential Sheepshead Bay road