1

Hazan
Ariela Hazan
Professor Susser
MHC 150: Peopling NYC
5/17/11
Final Paper: The Tombs of Chinatown

The Manhattan Detention Complex, aptly nicknamed “the

Tombs” for its unsanitary, unsafe conditions, is a detention center that

was built in the mid twentieth century on White Street. Even at the

time it was built, Chinatown was already in existence, an expanding

neighborhood that definitely included the area in which the center was

built.1 This paper is a study of how the expansion of the prison in 19832

affected the surrounding community in Chinatown, and an analysis of

the resistance the community put up against the expansion.

According to Dr. Peter Kwong, sociologist and expert on

Chinatown, there were several reasons why the community of

Chinatown would not want the detention center to expand. First and

1
Waxman, Sarah. The History of New York’s Chinatown.
http://www.ny.com/articles/chinatown.html
2
Interview with Dr. Peter Kwong (April 26th, 2011 4:04pm)
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foremost, its expansion would necessitate the destruction of the

surrounding buildings, and result in the necessary relocation of the

residents in the area. Second, the expansion of the center would block

Chinatown itself from expanding any further west, limiting the space

available for other people who want to join the neighborhood. Third,

many of the residents of Chinatown hold the common superstition that

prisons are unlucky, and therefore would find an expansion of the

center to be extraordinarily undesirable.3

Moreover, the usual stigma that accompanies the presence of a

detention center in the neighborhood might lower the overall value

and/or perceived safety of the neighborhood as well. In addition to this,

as one State Senate minority leader put it, “a mecca of tourism” would

be destroyed by the presence of the jail.4

This occasion of imminent domain was very similar to that of the

case discussed in Norman Street, by Dr. Ida Susser. The residents in

the Williamsburg/Greenpoint area were living directly in the planned

path of the new highway, the BQE (the Brooklyn Queens Expressway).

The residents came together and protested against being removed

from their own homes, much like residents in Chinatown protested the

planned extension of the Tombs.

An article in the New York Times documents the events leading

3
Interview with Dr. Peter Kwong (April 26th, 2011 4:04pm)
4
Manfred Ohrenstein quoted in New York Times Article (see reference note 6).
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up to the postponement of the decision to build the rest of the prison:

Twelve thousand demonstrators poured out of Chinatown and

past the courthouses of Foley Square to City Hall yesterday to
protest plans to build a jail in their neighborhood. Hours after
the protestors with their dancing dragon and their drums and
cymbals went home, their side won a partial victory. The Board
of Estimate voted early this morning to defer until December a
decision on the $101 million jail project on the outskirts of
Chinatown and Little Italy.5

Unfortunately, the residents’ victory was short-lived. A second article in

December follows the decision:

The board voted 7 to 4 to approve the jail project after the City
Council President, Carol Bellamy, fashioned a compromise to
remove cells for juvenile offenders from the proposed building.
…Nora Wong, executive director of the Chinatown Manpower
Project, said that in ''our very impressive, huge demonstration''
two weeks ago, when about 12,000 of the area's residents
marched to City Hall in protest, they had been calling for ''day
care centers, schools, housing, jobs, and not for a jail.''6

The protests could not stop the jail from being expanded, much like the

residents of Williamsburg and

Greenpoint could not stop the

highway from being built. The new

building of the Manhattan Detention

Complex opened in 1990.7

5
Carroll, Maurice (1982, November 19). Action On Chinatown Jail Put Off After
Protest. New York Times, p. B2.
6 Carroll Maurice (1982, December 3). Jail Near Chinatown is approved by 7 to 4 by Board of
Estimate. New York Times, p. A28.
7 Chan, Sewell (2006, July 3). Disgraced and Penalized, Kerik Finds His Name Stripped Off Jail. New
York Times, NY/Religion section.
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But the protests in Chinatown were slightly different from those

in Williamsburg and Greenpoint. For one thing, they were on a much

larger scale; protestors ranged in the thousands, rather than in the

Figure 1
hundreds. For another, there were a New building of the Manhattan Detention Complex

lot of vested interests from different parties conflicting in the situation.

This encouraged several different pre-existing organizations (such as

the Correction Officers Benevolent Association, the Coalition for Lower

Manhattan,8 and the Chinese Consolidated Benevolent Association9) to

join in the fight, and resulted in much more commotion and publicity.

However, the protests still had incredible residential participation as

well, with thousands of residents showing their support for the

opposition to the building of the jail.

But how much of the opposition was stemmed from fear founded

in reality, as opposed to contrived fears from an overall negative

perception of jails? One 11-year-old girl that was quoted in the Times

put it into terms more likely to pull at a reader’s heart-strings: ''My

classmates and I do not think that another jail should be built so close

to our playground.”10 How has the safety of Chinatown been affected

by the construction of the jail? Did the expansion of the jail destroy

8 Shenon, Philip (1983, September 24). City is Planning to Open Tombs before Schedule. New York
Times.
9
Dunlap, David W. (1982, October 6). City’s Planning Agency Votes Plan for Jail Near
Chinatown. New York Times.
10 Carroll Maurice (1982, December 3). Jail Near Chinatown is approved by 7 to 4 by Board of
Estimate. New York Times, p. A28.
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homes? Did it make the neighborhood less safe? Did it discourage

tourism? Once each of these questions has been answered, a tentative

conclusion might be made as to whether or not the expansion of the

jail did have an affect on the neighborhood in Chinatown, and whether

or not there was truth behind residents’ fears of the jail.

First, did the expansion of the detention center destroy homes?

As mentioned above, the expansion of the Tombs was going to destroy

buildings, but in fact, a compromise was made, and the expanded part

of the jail was only built on an empty plot of land next to the original

building. No buildings were destroyed and no residents were displaced

from their homes.

Second, the question about safety. This question is a bit stickier

since “safety,” can be quite a subjective term. Unfortunately, all crime

statistics available specifically about that area in Chinatown (Precinct

5), only date back to the year 1990, so the crime statistics before the

jail was expanded cannot be compared to those afterward. However, if

the statistics available are to be of any use, they make obvious that

crime in the area has decreased over the past two decades. The

number of crimes in 1990 (these include: murder, rape, robbery, felony

assault, burglary, grand larceny and grand larceny auto) was 4,476. In

2010, the number of crimes was topped at 971.11 That is an incredibly

large difference. Though many other factors may have played a role in
11
Statistics on individual precincts can be found on the NYPD website at:
http://www.nyc.gov/html/nypd/html/crime_prevention/crime_statistics.shtml. The
statistics here are from the 5th Precinct.
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the decreasing crime of the neighborhood, the answer to whether or

not the jail itself consistently propagated crime is most likely no.

To add another dimension to this answer, the subjective view of

the detention center must be analyzed. From experience on our tours

in the different neighborhoods, we can already tell something very

important about what makes neighborhoods feel “safe.” Andy Newman

brought a very illusive detail about safety to our attention: when he

polled the class, we discovered that most of the class felt safer in some

of the more “unsavory” sections of the neighborhoods we visited, while

they were more wary in some of the more affluent, “safer” sections.

The pattern was that the places we felt most safe in were the ones

with lots of passerby, while we felt unsafe in areas where, even if the

buildings looked nice, were deserted.

The area in which the Manhattan Detention Complex is situated

is extremely populated, with foot-traffic branching off from the main

street of Lafayette and Canal. Not only are there many pedestrians

around during the day, but there is quite a bit of car traffic too, and the

streets most certainly do not look deserted or unkempt.

Many residents agree with this view. In a poll taken of residents

and non-residents directly outside the detention complex12 a majority

(80%) answered that

12
Most polls conducted in English. Those conducted in Chinese were basic, and were
only meant to answer simple yes/no questions, such as “Do you feel safe?” to add
backing to the general view of the residents on safety. Polls done in Chinese are not
quoted here in case of misinterpretation/nuances lost in translation. No children were
polled.

Figure 2
Overpass connecting the older and newer buildings of the
Manhattan Detention Complex. Outline of inmates lines-up is
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they felt very safe in the neighborhood, even knowing that there was a

jail there. Many said that the presence of cops was comforting, and

was actually a helpful deterrence against crime. Others said that this

was just a detention center, there are no hardened criminals being

contained; in fact most of the detainees are harmless, just “normal”

citizens who have menially gotten into trouble with the law (such as

citizens with overdo/excessive parking tickets, minors caught with

recreational drugs or men who have gotten into once-in-a-lifetime bar

fights). Still others said that they weren’t even aware this was a

detention center until very recently, or even until asked about it in the

poll.

One detainee who had just been released said that even within

the detention center she felt safe—there were plenty of cops around

and even if there were “dangerous” criminals being held within the jail,

they were completely isolated.13 Another ex-detainee who, at the time

of being polled, was working in the detention center said that it was

safe and has been for a very long time (his assurance came from

experience within the jail at least two decades ago, and his current

work within the jail, which he was not allowed to disclose, but could

say for certain that there had been no jail-breaks since he had started

13
There were very few dissenting voices to this general feeling of safety. One woman
mentioned that she had been robbed in the area, and therefore did not feel safe.
Another man (who worked in the jail) said he felt unsafe when “high profile cases”
were being transported in or out. While these are dissenting opinions, they seem to
be based on isolated cases, and therefore do not very much affect the overall
perception of safety in the neighborhood.
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working).

Couples with carriages and young children pass by the detention

center often. High school and even middle school students, as well as

people going to and from work, walk through the “alleyway” created

by the two buildings of the detention center, under the overpass (see

Figure 2). It is quite obvious that no one feels that the detention

center poses a danger or is threat to them.

Lastly, the aspect of tourism must be called into question. Once

again, this is less straightforward than the issue of imminent domain,

and even safety, because statistics on tourism are even less available

(due to the fact that tourism specific to that area is not exactly

documented statistically).

However, a poll taken of randomly selected tourists who were

walking in the alley between buildings of the detention center14 showed

that they felt extremely safe. Many were unaware that the buildings

that surrounded them were part of a detention center, but noticed an

increase in the number officers (many of whom were sitting outside

the jail, on break), which increased their feelings of safety. Residents

that were asked about tourist safety said that the worst that happens

to tourists is that they are pick-pocketed or ripped off. Tourists would

not be deterred from visiting the neighborhood because of the

presence of the detention center (once again, because they either

14
All tourists polled, spoke English. No children were polled.
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don’t know it exists, or do not fell threatened by it).

In conclusion, the expansion of the jail does not seem to have

had a major affect on the safety of the neighborhood or on tourism in

the area.

Conclusion: Depending on the poll of the above-mentioned

people in the Chinatown area, and the crime statistics found in the

Department of Justice Census, we can either conclude that the prison’s

presence has an adverse effect on the neighborhood, a favorable

effect or no effect at all.

Bibliography:

NYPD Compstat, 5th Precinct.

http://www.nyc.gov/html/nypd/html/crime_prevention/crime_stati

stics.shtml

Waxman, Sarah. The History of New York’s Chinatown.

http://www.ny.com/articles/chinatown.html

Susser, Ida. Norman Street: Poverty and Politics in an Urban

Neighborhood. New York: Oxford University Press, 1982 .

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Carroll, Maurice (1982, November 19). Action On Chinatown Jail Put Off

After Protest. New York Times, p. B2.

Carroll Maurice (1982, December 3). Jail Near Chinatown is approved by 7 to 4 by Board

of Estimate. New York Times, p. A28.

Shenon, Philip (1983, September 24). City is Planning to Open Tombs before Schedule.

New York Times.

Dunlap, David W. (1982, October 6). City’s Planning Agency Votes Plan for Jail Near

Chinatown. New York Times.