‘Hilton Butt Out!’ Say Chinatown Community Groups

SAN FRANCISCO — Chinese civil rights groups and activists lashed out at the Hilton Hotel for threatening plans for a new City College campus in the heart of Chinatown.

Friends of Educational Opportunities in Chinatown, a coalition of various Chinese community groups in support of the proposed new building at Portsmouth Square, expressed outrage at the disclosure that Hilton Hotel Financial District has hired a lobbyist to oppose the building of the new campus. Chinatown

“We’ve joined together to fight for a critical cause, a permanent City College campus for the Chinatown community,” said Vincent Pan, executive director of Chinese for Affirmative Action, at a press conference held in San Francisco’s Chinatown. Pan charges that the Hilton Hotel has tried to create the impression that the Chinese community does not support the new campus.

The Hilton Hotel did not respond to repeated attempts to contact them in the week following the news conference.

The new campus has already been approved by the City College Board of Trustees and by San Francisco voters in last November’s election, Pan says. He adds that the Chinese community is firmly behind the new campus. Since Board of Supervisors President Aaron Peskin made the disclosure at a meeting in Chinatown in January, Friends of Educational Opportunities in Chinatown has already received 1600 signatures in support of the new campus. “Our concern is that Hilton continues to confuse people, causing a delay that will cause the funding to stop,” says Pan.

Community housing activist Linda Wang warned that delays may cause funding to go elsewhere. “There is a lot of competition for state funds,” says Wang, who sees the opposition as wealthy interests from Telegraph Hill, as well as the Hilton Hotel, who are interested in protecting unobstructed views of the city at the expense of the Chinese community. The proposed new site is directly across from the Hilton Hotel, Financial District.

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