Remember back in spring when I wrote about how the Korean community and the Bangladeshi community of Los Angeles were all up in arms over the official naming of “Little Bangladesh”? They were at impass, the Korean community unwilling to give up a portion of their officially named Korea Town. After months of back and forth, on October 15th, Little Bangladesh officially exists.
I kid you not this was the only news source I found about this notable occasion. Although groan worthy humorous, I also find the youtube video a testament to true Desi grassroots organizing at it’s finest. With floating fishes and bubbles to boot.
What I was able to gather from the video is that on October 15th, representative of the Korean Community Sam Lee and a representative of the Bangladeshi community Shamim Hussein met in City Councilman Tom LaBonge’s office. It was decided and signed upon that the official Little Bangladesh will now be on 3rd Street between Alexandria Ave and New Hampshire Ave. A four block span, this area is already home the Deshi Food & Groceries.
Obviously this is just the beginning of a long process. I would imagine that there will be a naming ceremony and an encouragement to have the Bangladeshi community invest in starting up businesses on those few blocks. There’s already an annual independence day festival at a nearby park and an annual parade. Many Bangladeshi immigrants from my father’s generation got their footing in the US, in that very neighborhood – so there is the continuing on of Bangladeshi-American history that will be marked by the official naming of the community. What else will be gained, only time will tell.
Previous Post: Kimchi vs. Ahchar. Fight!
Yay!! Go little Bangladesh in California.
This is really great news.
Yaahhhooo! Go Bangladesh! Go Little Bangladesh!!! Rock n’ roll baby!!! Go Banglacricket.com! Go Tigers!!! Go Bangladesh Cricket!!! Viva la Bangladesh!!!!
Bujhee Kom kotha kom ko. Great news indeed. Now I need to leave this little Bangladesh.
cool beans – it would have been cooler if Indians had helped the creation of Little Bangladesh. Although that too would be forgotten soon.
Great news!!!
Congrats all the Bangladeshis who worked for this and living there.
Long live Bangladesh.. Long live this frienship and long live BC…. @orphy’s bap: Hey uncle is your first name starts with Z..? 🙂
I’m an east Asian Californian and I think that creating this Little Bangladesh is great. But there are at least two things that need looking at from this point forward:
Bangladeshi-Korean relations: now that there will be a Bangladeshi district and a Korean district side by side, are business owners and leaders in both communities just going to go on with their separate lives, and occasionally get into conflicts over random issues? Or are they going to take this opportunity to market these two districts as part of a broader Asian area, and reduce potential conflicts between these two groups?
Clarifying the point of naming the area: is it mainly to provide an area for families, to serve as a business district to draw customers to the area, or to serve as a tourist area for culturally curious visitors? Or a mix of these things, or other reasons? Getting Bangladeshi Angeleno leaders to clarify this further would probably help to win over some Korean Angelenos who have been opposed Little Bangladesh.
“…Korean Community Sam Lee and a representative of the Bangladeshi community Shamim Hussein met in City Councilman Tom LaBonge’s office”
With a last name like LaBong(e) no wonder the Bangladeshis got their wish 🙂 (tongue firmly in cheek)
My mom wants me to marry a Korean guy
Jenna that is great. But keep in mind that some of these East Asians can be racist towards desis. And our differences are inversed in our fastidiousness over personal/social hygeine and culinary hygeine.
We had a similar incident in the Bay Area many years back. The temple in Sunnyvale is housed in a street called “Persian drive”, probably named after a cat. The Indian community wanted to name the portion in front of the temple to “Mandir drive”. The locals protested and the Indians withdrew their request. Check out the implicit racism (regardless of race) in the comments of the community.
So basically the Koreans let you have it. Damn shame you would think they would not have been opposed to it in the first place.