Bulldozing Asian Communities

Freeway Construction and Urban Renewal in Stockton

 Authors: Paul M. Ong, Chhandara Pech, Christopher-Hung Do, Anne Yoon, and Jacob L. Wasserman 

 StoryMap created by: Briana Soriano 


Stockton’s Asian Enclaves

Across the country are various ethnic enclaves valued and visited by many for their rich culture and deep roots. Generations persevered to build these neighborhoods. Among these are the ghosts of Stockton’s Chinatown, Japantown, and Little Manila that once thrived in California’s San Joaquin Valley.

Asian immigrants first were drawn to the hope sprouting along the West Coast during the Gold Rush. However, most found themselves later working in the agricultural sector, playing a key role in the region’s growing economy through cheap, backbreaking farm labor. Chinese, Japanese, and Filipino/a families began to permanently settle, and the Asian population grew in Stockton from 2,772 in 1930 to 13,679 by 1980. But since the mid-1800s and into the 1970s, Asian Americans were targets of multiple forms of discrimination—some shared by other people of color and others unique to Asians—including xenophobic immigration restrictions, prohibitions against owning land, and mass internment. A history of redlining and segregation during the 1950s and 1960s limited people of color in Stockton to living in the city’s south and parts of its eastern edge. Many others were further restricted by low-wages to live in overcrowded hotels, in poor conditions. This population density, though, led to the establishment of urban ethnic safe havens.

Asian Enclaves within Central Stockton

Vibrant commercial and social hubs flourished with businesses, institutions, and associations. Chinatown was a cultural hub where people could gather, speak their native language, and buy familiar foods at restaurants and markets. It incorporated Washington Street, or “the heart and soul of Chinatown,” and family associations that provided job and home resources to newly arriving Chinese immigrants. Japantown, at its peak in the 1930s, held over 150 Japanese businesses. The Buddhist Church of Stockton, established in 1906 on Washington Street, served as a Jodo Shinshu Buddhist temple and social hall. Japanese internment during the Second World War hollowed out Japantown by 1945, and the temple’s facilities were critical for those who resettled postwar. Little Manila was a center for the Filipino/a community. Dance halls, grocery stores, lunch counters, barber shops, hotels, restaurants, and pool and gambling halls were frequented for decades, starting in the 1920s. Although distinct, these enclaves intersected to create a five-by-five block neighborhood filled with their religion, language, and cuisine. 

Top: Chung Wah School Portrait; Bottom, Left to Right: Interned Second- and Third-generation Japanese Americans in Stockton; The Filipino Lighthouse Church in Stockton Little Manila; Dodoy Market in Little Manila

I think [it] was important in terms of our sense of identity...that we had a community that we felt comfortable in

—Lillian Galedo, Stockton resident and scholar

Unfortunately, the same marginalization that brought Stockton Asian residents of color together to breathe life into these cultural hubs made those enclaves structurally vulnerable to massive infrastructure programs, and contemporaneous racism and discrimination created barriers to any meaningful and fair engagement in the decision-making process. These hotspots ultimately became victims of freeway construction and urban renewal. 

Freeway Planning, Selection, and Impacts

Following the Second World War, Stockton’s landscape underwent a major shift due to suburbanization and an attendant expansion of the freeway system to both serve and facilitate a rise in travel demand of the growing numbers of suburbanites within the region. During this period, the federally funded Interstate Freeway System transformed the U.S. urban fabric and, along with state funding and planning, modernized California’s highway system. One of the routes desired by City leadership and state freeway planners in Stockton was a crosstown east/west freeway that would link two major north/south freeways: Interstate 5 that ran along the city’s western edge, and State Route 99 that ran along the city’s eastern edge.

Map of alternative freeway systems and interchanges, with options shaded in purple, orange, green, pink, yellow, and blue, atop the street grid

Stockton Freeway Master Plan Study: Map of Alternative Freeway Systems

During the initial planning stage, numerous alternatives were proposed, as shown in the map above. The middle east/west paths would take traffic through Stockton’s downtown, but there were also suggested alternatives north and south of downtown. Numerous factors influenced the selection of the path for the Crosstown Freeway, to carry State Route 4. The impact, benefit, and cost of the alternatives differed dramatically.

The disparities in who would have been impacted can be seen in comparing the ultimately chosen route through downtown and one of the considered alternate routes further north. What is readily apparent is that the northern route would have run through predominantly white neighborhoods, while the downtown route ran through many communities of color.

The magnitude of the racial differences can be seen in the estimated number of homes that would have been destroyed for two proposed routes. The downtown route would have destroyed more homes and displaced more people. Those impacted by the downtown option were largely people of color, while those impacted by the other path would have been overwhelmingly white.

Chosen Route: population: 1,131; housing units: 813; households: 660; non-white, non-Hispanic households: 372; share, non-white, non-Hispanic households: 56%; households of color: 438; share, households of color: 66% Unchosen Route: population: 934; housing units: 424; households: 396; non-white, non-Hispanic households: 11; share, non-white, non-Hispanic households: 3%; households of color: 24; share, households of color: 6%

Systemic differences are also found in the median family income. People living in tracts with the chosen route earned far less than the tract with the unchosen route in 1960, before construction began. Indeed, the spared areas earned a median income higher than Stockton and San Joaquin County overall, while the affected tracts fell far below them.

Median Family Income, 1960 (1960 $) Tracts with chosen route: $3,768 Tract with unchosen route: $6,109 City of Stockton: $6,059 San Joaquin County: $5,889

Numerous social, political, and economic forces influenced the freeway siting decision. Downtown commercial interests wanted the freeway to bring in customers and workers from the emerging suburbs, white residents were more politically connected to resist the freeway, and the state and City had embraced the use of freeway construction and urban renewal to implement “slum clearance” of marginalized central neighborhoods. The net result of this inherently racially biased process was running the Crosstown Freeway through sections of downtown home to people and businesses of color, including the Asian enclaves.

Urban Renewal

Freeway construction fueled the decline of Stockton’s downtown, but so too did broader processes of urban sprawl. As the northern region of Stockton and its suburbs saw burgeoning private development backed by government subsidized mortgages and infrastructure, white residents of the region relocated to these newly invested spaces. De-densification of the urban core stripped it of jobs and businesses, and Stockton’s leaders in turn responded by turning to urban renewal. Given federal loans and grants, the City acquired then cleared areas deemed “blighted.”

Composite black-and-white photograph of central Stockton, with Asian enclaves circled in yellow, with freeway partially under construction, with blocks down the middle of the photograph cleared and some pillars built

Stockton’s Asian Enclaves (Circled) amidst Redevelopment Projects and the Crosstown Freeway Construction

Stockton’s Housing and Redevelopment Department, established in 1955, carried out the West End Redevelopment Project downtown. Focused on an area containing “Skid Row” and the Asian enclaves, the project garnered federal redevelopment funds to execute ambitious and devastating plans. Destruction came to 64 low-cost rooming houses and hotels, dramatically reducing the amount of available living quarters from over 3,500 to only 386 rooms in the downtown sector. In the name of progress, a low-income and racially diverse population was forced out of their once homes.

Black-and-white photograph of original On Lock Sam location, with a building at center with a sign reading "ON LOCK SAM" "FINE CHINESE FOOD," next to a building at right with front façade demolished and rubble in the street and on the second floor and the building inside open to the street, all in front of a street with cars parked

Original On Lock Sam Location

Although urban renewal projects were masked with the intent to revitalize dwindling districts, they did little to improve or preserve unique cultures, businesses, and functions once belonging to targeted people of color. This worked in tandem with freeway construction to disperse and bulldoze over ethnic neighborhoods, ironically inhibiting outlying residents from shopping, eating, and gathering downtown. People of color were in fact further disadvantaged in visiting and employment opportunities through a combination of elongated distances and fewer transportations resources. This redistribution of people heightened disparities in socioeconomic status in new geographic patterns across the urban core, older residential neighborhoods, and the emerging suburbs.

The winos are gone. The flop-houses are gone. And gone are the card rooms, the sleazy bars, and the decaying buildings that housed them.

—Modesto Bee, 1977

Resistance, Adaptation, and Loss

Uprooting of Asian culture after decades of blooming was of course met with resistance from the hardworking families that relied on the businesses and from community members who formed memories there. When they could not rebuild within the enclaves, they re-established them elsewhere. Although they lacked the political clout to stop the destruction, their struggle was an important part of an emerging movement for social justice. Stories of opposition and adaptation—and of what was lost and dearly missed—exist among historical records and in the memory of living generations. Below are only a handful of those tellings.

In 1970, the Lee Center held its opening ceremony. This 4.5-story mixed-use development had restaurants and shops with housing for 190 senior residents, hoping to replace the loss felt in Chinatown. It stood proud for only a few years until financial difficulties became unmanageable. The Lee Center may have closed, but Chinese residents continued to mobilize to preserve their presence in Stockton.

[The Lee Center] stands as a monument to the Chinese citizenry deeply rooted in the social and economic environs of this community whose wish is to return something meaningful to a city which has been good to its people.

—Tommy Lee, president of the Lee Family Association, 1970

Black-and-white photograph of the Lee Center opening ceremony, with a group of onlookers, some under the overhang of a building, watching a dance in a plaza

Via a public announcement in 1963, the Buddhist Church of Stockton was informed that it needed to vacate its location in Japantown. Almost 500 families from the surrounding area congregated at this religious cornerstone that would soon become, as Reverend LaVerne Senyo Sasaki described, “a pile of dirt right there, right in the heart of the freeway.” The reverends organized a church-wide fundraiser which successfully raised the funds needed to relocate, although outside of its original home area.

Stockton-area resident and activist Luna Jamero remembers Little Manila fondly as the place to understand and connect with her Filipina identity and family; “it was like going home.” Jamero recalls Little Manila as a gathering place for manongs (a term that embodies affection and respect applied to men of an older Filipino generation, best translated as “older brother”), who would socialize in the streets after leaving their field work and field clothes, in exchange for rest and community. Galedo and Laurena Cabanero, Stockton researcher and artist, presented evidence of the freeway’s effects on Little Manila to officials at all levels of government:

It was almost as if the community members didn’t fully realize what effect the Crosstown Freeway was going to have on the Filipino community. They knew that the Filipino Center would provide housing to the manongs who were going to be displaced. But when the map was presented, it was as if the whole room gasped. They saw that Little Manila was in the direct path of the freeway, and it was then they realized the magnitude of the situation

—Cabanero

Charcoal sketch of group of manong men, most in hats in a row, looking forward, in front of a sign for the construction of the Filipino Center with a depiction of the future center and a sign reading "Future Site Of THE FILIPINO CENTER": "Commercial-Resident[ial]"

In 1972, the Filipino Center opened at the northwestern edge of old Little Manila, providing 128 units of low-income housing. Opening its doors was a struggle, as obtaining funding was challenged by the Redevelopment Agency responsible for the West End Redevelopment Project, but persistence eventually landed the project approval. Today, the center continues to restore a sense of identity and stands as an homage to resistance to erasure for the Filipino/a community.

When you look at some of these folks that immigrated and the challenges they face to get here, stay here, and thrive here,...they pick their battles. And they knew how to exist and work within the framework of the world that they live in....These people were amazing in rolling with the punches, accepting it, moving on, and hopefully doing better

—Victor Mow, former Stockton City Councilmember

Restorative Justice?

Remedying past harms from systemic racism requires restorative justice. The State of California and the City of Stockton have only recently begun to explore remedying the harm caused, but the initial steps have been taken through research and by proposing the Stockton Downtown Transformation Project. This state project intends to help revitalize the neighborhoods eviscerated by the Crosstown Freeway through physical improvements and collaboration with neighborhood groups.

As the Stockton Downtown Transformation Project is still underway, we have yet to observe the extent to which the project takes tangible steps toward remediating the harm caused by the Crosstown Freeway. Yet, the project stands as an example of potential efforts by state agencies to move closer to restorative justice. Efforts like this, along with others by community groups and businesses, represent a potential strategy to redress decades of misguided and racially biased freeway construction and urban redevelopment, but much more will be needed to be successful.


Select Sources

 Buddhist Church of Stockton (2021). Buddhist Church of Stockton: A Jodo Shinshu Temple in San Joaquin Valley. Buddhist Church of Stockton.  https://buddhistchurchofstockton.org/ . 

 Chinese—Stockton: Dedication of the Lee Center, Washington St. and El Dorado St., 144 Mun Kwok La (1970, August 11). University of the Pacific, Holt-Atherton Special Collections—Digital Archives, Historic Stockton Photographs, 6703 (P76-0570).  https://scholarlycommons.pacific.edu/hsp/6703/ . 

 Chinese—Stockton: On Lock Sam Restaurant on 125 ½ E. Washington St. at the Time of Area Redevelopment (c. 1967). University of the Pacific, Holt-Atherton Special Collections—Digital Archives, Historic Stockton Photographs, 6706 (P77-1452).  https://scholarlycommons.pacific.edu/hsp/6706/ . 

 Dodoy Market (1951, January 1). University of the Pacific, Holt-Atherton Special Collections—Digital Archives, Little Manila Exhibit, 54.  https://scholarlycommons.pacific.edu/little-manila-x/54/ .  

 Filipino Lighthouse Church (1950, January 1). University of the Pacific, Holt-Atherton Special Collections—Digital Archives, Little Manila Exhibit, 59.  https://scholarlycommons.pacific.edu/little-manila-x/59/ .  

 Lange, D. (1942, May 19). Stockton, California. Young Persons of Japanese Ancestry, Second- and Third-generation Americans. They Have Been in Camp about a Week, Where There Is Little for Them to Do as Yet. The Sun Is Very Hot. The Oldest of These Boys Has Been Studying This Morning. The Book That He Carries Is a Text on American Government.  https://catalog.archives.gov/id/537722 .  

 Martin, V. (1925, March 1). Chinese—Stockton: Group Portrait of Chung Wah School Commemorating Its 1st Anniversary. University of the Pacific, Holt-Atherton Special Collections—Digital Archives,  Historic Stockton Photographs, 6717 (P78-4153).  https://scholarlycommons.pacific.edu/hsp/6717/ .  

 Overhead Shot of Little Manila and Freeways (n.d.). University of the Pacific, Holt-Atherton Special Collections—Digital Archives, Little Manila Exhibit, 22.  https://scholarlycommons.pacific.edu/little-manila-x/22 . 

 Stockton Buddhist Church (1932). Densho Digital Repository, Terakawa Collection.  https://ddr.densho.org/ddr-densho-357-310/ . 

 Wiley, W. (1977, June 28). Success: Redevelopment Turns Stockton’s Skid Row into Showcase. Modesto Bee.  https://www.newspapers.com/image/691003097 . 

Stockton Freeway Master Plan Study: Map of Alternative Freeway Systems

Stockton’s Asian Enclaves (Circled) amidst Redevelopment Projects and the Crosstown Freeway Construction

Original On Lock Sam Location