Take Two translates the day’s headlines for Southern California, making sense of the news and cultural events that affect our lives. Produced by Southern California Public Radio and broadcast from October 2012 – June 2021. Hosted by A Martinez.
One of the oldest hospitals in Los Angeles has closed its doors. After 157 years serving the community in and around Chinatown, the Pacific Alliance Medical Center quietly shut down and laid off all 638 of its employees.
It had been a major hospital for that part of town, with a staff that spoke Mandarin and Cantonese, among other dialects, and became a fixture in the community. Frank Shyong, who wrote about the closure for the L.A. Times, had this to say:
"Chinatown for a lot of years and even going into today has been this area where immigrants just kind of land and figure things out. Having a hospital there, with a bunch of immigrants who couldn't speak English and didn't understand the American medical system and insurance, the hospital basically evolved services to fit that."
The hospital's closure is a symbol of the irreversible changes happening in the rapidly gentrifying neighborhood, Shyong added. The change has been happening slowly over decades. As more and more Asian Americans moved to the San Gabriel Valley, it would seem that there is little left for Asian Americans in Chinatown. Yet, Shyong explained that the cultural and generational connection to the neighborhood remains strong.
"There are still lots of people who drive past the San Gabriel Valley from Redlands or wherever to go patronize the businesses that they're familiar with. And of course there's Little Tokyo and lots of these ancestral connections that are still maintained by the people and the generations left over."