![]() ![]() It also has a second location on the Upper West Side. For now, it will continue to offer takeout and run a small sidewalk patio that was built with $5,000 in donations raised through a GoFundMe campaign. It was unclear whether Jing Fong would reopen somewhere else. “Half of our business was attributed to banquets, parties and weddings and that’s been a big fat zero.” “We just can’t make ends meet and who knows when this business is going to rebound?” he said. Truman Lam, whose family owns Jing Fong, said they could no longer afford to operate the banquet hall after their revenue plunged by 85 percent during the pandemic. Chen said.Ĭhinatown has actually had a lower rate of confirmed coronavirus cases than the city on average, according to a New York Times database. “We are going to have to do a multiprong, multiphase approach to recovery,” Mr. While foot traffic has started to gradually pick up, many business and community leaders worry that many of those working from home may not return and that some tourists and visitors will continue to steer clear of Chinatown because of an outbreak that has fanned racism, xenophobia and violence against Asian-Americans around the country. “A lot of folks love our store and come to our store because of the experience of walking into our physical storefront and being able to touch and feel the porcelain,” said Mei Lum, 30, the owner, adding that it allows them to “feel a connection to home” and “a sense of old Chinatown.” Wing on Wo & Co., a family-run store that has sold porcelain bowls and vases for more than a century, temporarily closed and turned to online sales as its business dropped by as much as 40 percent. But the idea is now gaining traction, even as evidence builds that the virus emerged from a Wuhan market.
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