When you walk through the streets and alleys of San Francisco’s China Town you are engulfed in a riot of colors, sounds and smells. Much to see that is vivid and enticing, beckoning exploration.

You would never know how divided the community is in these parts by just looking at all this beauty; a chasm separates many local merchants and their organizations from those who are mere members of the community and community organizers.

Point in case was a fight over the potential name for a new subway station that is supposed to open next January. The new line is designed to replace the Embarcadero Freeway that sent tourists from the waterfront into North Beach and Chinatown until it was closed and eventually torn down following damage in the wake of the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake. It will connect Union Square directly to China Town, supposed to bring tourists and tourist $$ in droves to the businesses on Grant St. and surrounds.

Business owners and their allies in the community (including Falun Gong) were opposed to naming the station for an activist, now deceased, who was instrumental in making the $ 1.6 billion subway line a reality: Rosa Pak. The controversy is rooted in a general division: some in the Chinese community see China Town basically as a tourist attraction designed to shore up sales. Others see Chinatown as a community hub for all Chinese Americans, a place where they live and work and want to engage in local politics, instead of still being directed by generations of overseas politics in China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan.

As this opinion piece put it: (opponents to naming the station Rosa Pak)… see Chinatown as they would a fortune cookie: it looks Chinese, but it only exists in the United States and it is mostly a way to either profit by and sell to non-Chinese or grab their attention to showcase political propaganda — sometimes both. They wanted to name the station simply China Town, officially in keeping with MUNI’s practice to appoint geographical locations only.

The article linked above describes much of what the community activist accomplished and the still ongoing, underlying political conflict between those who seek profit and those who want to allot city funding to primarily community-based causes like permanent affordable housing, kindergartens and senior residencies and renovation funding for Portsmouth Square, which is known as the living room for the families crammed into nearby Single Room Occupancy (SRO) buildings.

Spoiler alert: The San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency narrowly voted to name the city’s newest Muni station after the late Rose Pak on August 21st. I’m sure there were some celebratory dinners.