Dallas’ Chinatown Soundbites…

THEY OCCURRED ALMOST A YEAR AGO. YET THE ATTACKS OF SEPTEMBER 11TH CONTINUE TO AFFECT US ALL. BLOCKS AWAY FROM THE TRAGEDY, NEW YORK’S CHINATOWN WAS HARD HIT. 15-HUNDRED MILES AWAY, THE ASIAN COMMUNITY IN DALLAS ALSO FEELS THE EFFECTS RICHARDSON IS A SUBURB OF DALLAS AND IS HOME TO MANY ASIAN BUSINESSES. THERE, WE TALKED TO SOME OF THEM.

NAT sounds of outside music (Asian Music)

Walt Hsu. I came from Taiwan 22 years ago. I’m always in this community. Richardson, TX. I’m coming here and do business here. I like this. This is my second hometown.
After 9-11 not only this Chinatown but this city of Richardson and a lot of communication companies here, a lot of employees from Oriental countries and I think we have a lot of layoffs.
Most of our customers here are from Taiwan, Hong Kong, China, Vietnam, Philippines, Malaysia, Indonesia. They’re hard-working, here. There are high-tech people here. Once they got the layoff, of course, they move out and then we lose the customers.

NAT sounds of water….fish tanks

My name is How Ng and I am the manager of ABC Tropical Fish. Business has dropped by about 50%. In fact, since 9-11, a number of local pet shops have closed. There’s a pet shop just down the street. They have been in business for almost 20 years and went out of business just months ago.

NAT sounds of office…paper shuffling, people talking/walking by…typing on the computer…phone ringing

LuCheng Mailloux and I am a branch manager of American First National Bank.
I think it indirectly affect the economy here. I think because 9-11 affect the whole economy, the whole country and then also the teller communication industry. Richardson area is primarily a teller communication. I know some telecoms here. MCI, TI. And so they have all the layoffs here. Of course, in this shopping strip here you notice all restaurants around this area. They have real good business at lunchtime and now you don’t see all the crowd here. Right now, it’s almost 12 and I can see the parking lot is almost empty. Still empty. Yeah, it does affect a lot.
Well, I think everybody are affected by this. Therefore, everyone knows this is downturn economy. Everyone is prepared for this. I have several customers, they have just like everybody else is doing. Layoff people and reduce the staff and employees and try do to whatever they can do. I think this also adds to the problem. After they layoff people. They don’t have income. It’s just a spiral effect and they will affect other industry.
I think everybody knows there is hope and that the government is doing something too. It’s just everybody’s hand is tied and just try to wait it out.