Forget it, Jake. It’s Chinatown.
The Denver metropolitan area has over 2.5M people (closer to 3M if you include Boulder-Longmont) and has no Chinatown. Interestingly, there used to be one where Coors Field sits today, but it was razed in the 1940’s
It’s not on the Wiki-list, but Portland also has a Chinatown, although it usually is called Old Town. It’s been a long time since there’s been a sizable number of Chinese living there, but I expect that’s true of most Chinatowns.
Houston had an “old” Chinatown, Downtown; freeway construction & a convention center have pretty much erased it. Mostly, the Chinese-Texans* moved* to the 'burbs & took their businesses with them. New Chinatown sprawls southwest of town. And, as Wikipedia says, includes “many other ethnic groups.”
There are plenty of Chinese (& other Asian) businesses found throughout the Greater Houston Area.
I’m mildly surprised it took someone this long.
Ironically, the LA Chinatown of the period of the film (pre-WWII) was about a square block. I don’t know what Jake was doing in Chinatown, but it couldn’t have been very much. (Of course, Jake says he was doing “as little as possible,” but still, one would think that the D.A. would assign an investigator a slightly larger beat.) The contemporary Los Angeles Chinatown is about four blocks by three and is mostly occupied by cheap crap stores, half of which are operated by Vietnamese immigrants. You’ll actually find more ethnic Chinese in the Toy District. Everybody wants to come to LA to see Hollywood, Chinatown, and Santa Monica Blvd., and everybody leaves disappointed with what a grungy place Los Angeles actually is (compared to their preconceptions).
Stranger
What percentage of properties must be occupied by ethnically Chinese people to constitute a real Chinatown? A majority? A plurality?
I think that there are still a few Chinese restaurants left in Chinatown. The better question is are any of them any good. None of the ones I’ve tried there are. The best ones seem to be in the suburbs.
Interestingly, the last meal I had in the DC Chinatown–some years back–was at a Burmese restaurant. It was quite good.
This website says that there are 19 Chinese restaurants in the D.C. Chinatown.
I forgot to include the URL:
http://www.urbanspoon.com/nf/7/611/613/DC/Chinatown/Chinese-Restaurants