The Loss of Chinatown’s Local Businesses Is Creating a Health Desert
Store closures and displacements are reshaping Chinatown and eroding the community’s emotional and physical well-being.
In Los Angeles’s Chinatown, the signs of decline are impossible to miss — shuttered restaurants, boarded storefronts, and fewer pedestrians on once-crowded streets. Beneath the economic downturn, there also lies a quieter public health crisis.
For decades, this dense neighborhood — less than a third of a square mile but home to nearly 37,000 people — has served as an informal ecosystem of care. Elders who didn’t drive could walk to buy groceries, refill prescriptions or herbal tonics, chat with longtime shop owners, or sit down with friends to enjoy the familiar flavors of home.
This story is part of the 2025 Ethnic Media Collaborative, Healing California, co-published with World Journal.
A closed storefront in Chinatown. (Jian Zhao/World Journal)
A desolate street in Chinatown
Author's summary: Chinatown's local businesses decline affects community well-being.