Yeah yeah yeah, so some of them aren’t so little. But they still love to put Little in the name.
To wit, San Jose has a stretch of Story Road (“story” – get the title now?) that has a majority of businesses owned by Vietnamese-American. Operative word: “majority.” Meaning around over 50%. Meaning probably not a lot over 50%. Not like Little Saigon in Orange County at all.
Which is why it was hard to get the non-Viet locals to agree to the name “Little Saigon.”
First, it ain’t so little.
Second, it ain’t so Vietnamese.
But Councilwoman Madison Nguyen (photo) forced a name change through the City Council anyway and got an 8-3 vote for “Saigon Business District” at its meeting on 11/20/07.
If she thought that was a good compromise, she was wrong. Boy was she wrong!
No sooner did the San Jose City Council pass the resolution that calls were made for her resignation. Numerous protests were held. As usual, Madison Nguyen was called “pro-communist.”
And then things got really ugly.
Ly Tong, the man many consider a hero for dropping anti-communist leaflets on Saigon and Havana, Cuba, announced he would go on a hunger strike unless the city renames the area Little Saigon – thus showing his determination to die for a street sign.
On 2/22, Mayor Chuck Reed and Councilwoman Nguyen floated the idea of having the name change on the ballot. That too was met by objections that outsiders from other parts of San Jose would unfairly get to vote on the area name (oh really? And how many of the protesters live on Story Road??).
So they backed down and withdrew that proposal too.
At the 3/2 meeting of the council, the “Saigon Business District” name is pulled as well.
So now there’s no name for that area. Nothing Saigon – not little, not big, not nothing.
What the heck. Who cares. The grapes were sour anyway…..
Way back in December of last year, when I had lunch with U.S. Rep. Ed Royce – who represents the area around Fullerton in Southern California – I told him about the whole Madison Nguyen story.
Now the man is no stranger to the power of little symbolic favors in service of grand political schemes: As a state senator, Ed Royce had helped his then-aide Van Thai Tran to lobby CalTrans to place a “Little Saigon” direction sign at an exit on the 22 freeway. That act helped launch Van Tran’s political career.
So when we (I and Anh Do of Nguoi Viet) finished our story, the Congressman noted dryly:
“Boy, it’s a good thing Van and I went for ‘Little Saigon’ wasn’t it?”
I think the sign for Little Saigon erected on freeway 405 and 22 about 20 years ago before Van Tran worked for Ed Royce.
>>>FreeVN wrote:
March 14th, 2008 at 3:01 pm
I think the sign for Little Saigon erected on freeway 405 and 22 about 20 years ago before Van Tran worked for Ed Royce.<<<
That was in Southern California, in Northern, San Jose also nearly 20 yrs ago has a sign “Little Saigon” erected on Hwy 101 south near Story Rd and Capitol Expy.
I believed that Vietnames people want little saigon to remain little saigon because they want to perserve a “Saigon” since the real one was lost during the war and renamed Ho chi minh city and with that was the lost of little freedom they had. So by calling a place in california little saigon it helped them to perserve the memories of the past and the freedom they are granted now.