"Little Saigon" -- Hunger Striker in San Jose

Viet World Kitchen is a food place but I sometimes digress to discuss political issues. Last month, we started a conversation about the "Little Saigon" naming controversy in San Jose, California. It all started when disgruntled Viet-Americans called Madison Nguyen a communist because they didn't like her support of "Saigon Business District" over their preferred "Little Saigon." People took sides, there were generational splits, talk of recalls, and more.

In a nutshell, much has gone awry and the latest developments include the following:

(3/13/08) City of San Jose comes up with a temporary solution and Ly Tong ends his hunger strike. He'd stopped drinking water a little while ago. For more, read the thread below and also the postings at Solving San Jose's Little Saigon Controversy.

(3/4/08) The San Jose Mercury News released some numbers (finally!) saying that last August 2007 the City of San Jose's Redevelopment Agency sent out 1,136 surveys to people living near the stretch of Story Road, asking them what it should be called. Of the surveys sent out, there were 117 responses. Of those responses, 44 surveys were for "Little Saigon." The mayor, who's now being criticized for mishandling this situation, says they should have paused to outreach to people.  The newspaper's editorial board calls for the city to end the "ridiculous" situation and name the area "Little Saigon" -- just so everyone can move on. It's a 1-mile strip of road.

(3/2/08) A protest of 7,500 Viet-Americans gathered in front of City Hall to support "Little Saigon."

In light of all the turmoil that this once small issue has created, Mayor Chuck Reed and Councilwoman Madison Nguyen are going to rescind (pull back) the name "Saigon Business District" on March 4. The City of San Jose will not have a costly city-wide vote on the name, and some kind of process will be devised for coming up with a name. This past week, commentary in the San Jose Mercury News has stated things like the situation has become "surreal" with the hunger strike, that the city has become a "laughing-stock" and that it needs to move on.

Perennial showman Ly Tong decided last Friday to eat his last bowl of noodles and go on a hunger strike until the city agrees to name the business-shopping district "Little Saigon" instead of "Saigon Business District," which was what was decided on by the city council. "I'll continue until I die," he says according to a 2/20/08 article in the San Jose Mercury News.

The City of San Jose is going to put the naming issue up to a city-wide vote (the name affects a couple of blocks in District 7, represented by Councilwoman Madison Nguyen, the first Vietnamese American woman to be elected to office)

The controversy has made national headlines in a 2/16/08 piece in the New York Times.

The wh0le thing has escalated into a mess that will unfortunately damage the San Jose Vietnamese American community for a long time, unless a diplomatic solution can be finessed. For 2008 Tet, San Francisco-based journalist and commentator Andrew Lam penned a terrific and insightful piece on the many unresolved issues in the Vietnamese American community. He carefully aired a little dirty laundry but got people thinking about the realities of Vietnam today, the tight relationship between overseas Vietnamese and the Motherland, and how people may come to grips with  their anger and sense of loss:

New Year, Old Unresolved Passion: Vietnam and its Diaspora (New American Media, 2/7/08)

 

Comments

[Andrea Nguyen]

Pham, thanks for the run down of events.

Yep, Ly Tong's campaign hopefully will come to an end soon.

[civil]

Little Saigon angel has been waiting for you ,Ly Tong .Are you ready to depart ??.It's been to long to act that way,Ly Tong .City hall is not Hollywood playground ,Ly Tong .
If you don't want to die ,then you don't have to fake .Why do you have to lie ,Ly Tong ?? Do you really love the name Little saigon or it just a game for you to play .Look at your action from the day you begin .I know it is not true anything you have said ,it's just a dirty game .That's all .
I know because there is no way that Saigon business district and Little Saigon are much different in common sense.You have made it up .Look at your fight .It shows .

[Dung]

Very well said .
One more generation removed and all this garbage forgotten.
These demonstrators are really stubborn and such sore losers.
Let 's work on some better cause instead of crying foul like a child asking for candy after candy.

[M.T.]

"A rose by any other name is still a rose as they say. Starving oneself for such a trivial matter is uncalled for and unnecessary. I often wondered what good would come out of such determined people if they would put their efforts towards constructive causes instead of destructive causes. It's a shame really... maybe Story road should just keep the same name so that our people may continue on as they always have instead of fighting. You would think that after years of war that all we would want is peace, but that's just not the case. One more generation removed and none of these things will even matter...

Posted by: | March 11, 2008 at 06:07 PM"

I totally agree with this post. Also with civil, Dung, and Mike. Lets stop this madness and move on. Like Mike said we voted for the Mayor and city councils, now that they have made their decision. Live it and move on to a better cause then this crazy naming issue. It is just a name and will ONLY be a name. If these demonstrators feel so strongly about this naming of Little Saigon then they should try to buy out the businesses and have it change it. Don't waste our tax payers money and time on things as crazy as this. Especially we already have a budget problem here that needs to be address. I hate to say it but "It is part of life". You will win some and you will lose some so lets move on. Hopefully for a better cause then what is in a "NAME". Life is too short on this earth, lets enjoy it as much as we can together instead of fighting.

As for Ly Tong, I have heard from some people that he is getting some food (power bars or candies) hand it to him secretly. Trust me after 5 days of starving, he will not have that much energy to wait in line to speak at the city council meeting a couple weeks ago. Especially raising his arms and screeming at the meeting. It kinda of funny to me that people consider him as a "Hero". He is not fighting for human rights here, he is starving himself over the naming issue.

Please do not post allegation and similar stuffs here Pham.
Proven evidence and facts only.
Such quote as "allegedly" do not mean anything to us Ameircans. We want fair and balanced viewpoint with any accusation stated being proven and backed up with fact or evidence.

[vietguy]

For those of you think that the fight for the name Little Saigon is just a fight for a name, and why make it a big deal, then you are too naive or plain idiot. Think about Rodney King's case back 12-13 years ago, why did the black people made it a big deal. If there is no small vocal group with all those old peoples (that you guys are laughing at) to started with, then the Vietnamese community might never have a voice to ask for our right in the future. And for those of you think that Ly Tong is ridiculous for what he is doing, you should be ashamed of yourself. It takes a real hero, a greatest human being to do what Ly Tong did for the freedom of Vietnam and for the Vietnamese community here in SJ. He is a scholar, got a p.h.d here in the US , and he can choose to live a normal life like us, but instead he chose to fight for the freedom of Vietnam, and as a result spend years after years in jails. And now not so long after he got his freedom back, he chose to take the road on hunger strike until he die to fight for the voice of the Vietnamese community, then what makes you guys think you have the right to judge him. If you guys cant help our community, then shut the hell up because when you talked, it just showed your ignorance and irresponsibitly as a true Vietnamese. Perhaphs, you never proud nor admit that you are Vietnamese at all ..

[vietguy]

Oh yeah, if you guys dont think the small vocal Vietnamese group can win this battle, then wait and see. Have respect for the elderly, by slap your faces a few times if the city reverse their decision and give in.

[civil]

I slap who told me Little Saigon is my identity .Then i slap whoever label people communist whom disagree with them .Two slaping face for 2 liars .

[M.T.]

vietguy,
You are missing the point when I said the quote from Rodney King was that we should be coming together instead of fighting with each other. If our SJPD do what the LAPD do to Rodney King, I will support you all the way. But this is not the case, we are not fight for any kind of valuable cause except what is in a NAME. Don't get me wrong that it mean something to some people but we need to do in a better way. The bottom line is that the decision was made and we need to live with it and move on. Like I said in my previous post that if you do not have any stakes in it then YOU NOT have the right to name it, in my opinion. This is a free country, you can do whatever you want within the means of the law. yelling and crying foul play, or go as far as to threaten people when you do not get your way is very WRONG and childish. I think the city council members and Mayor made the right choice and leave it upto the business owners since they have the most stakes at it. They are the ones who would have to pay to put up the name and maintain it. As for all of you cry babies, I call it. Excuse my language but it is what you are. Just because you do not get your way, you have to attack people personally. Just like some of the posting here including "Loc". I think Andrea is nice enough to help bring up the discussion here in her blog so you can voice your opinion professional without attacking anyone personally but yet you guys went over board and try to so hard to analyze things which is true or not. Loc, you are just like those protesters. Making assumptions without facts. It is like shooting from the hip before you figure it out where you want to aim at. Please lets just stop the madness and stop calling people names because they don't agrees with you. You are lucky that you are here in a free country to voice your opinions. If you try to do that in Vietnam, we will not have to worry about news or media. You won't be seems anymore, you will just disappear in a thin air. Mr. Ly Tong would not have to worry about hunger strike because they will not feed. Hero, you guys make me laugh. Freedom, we have it here that is why you are able to voice your opinion. I do not need Mr. Ly Tong to help me with Freedom here. Where was he when the communist was taking over Saigon? Oh wait, let me see getting his PHD so he can go on hunger strike here in San Jose. Come on people wake up and smell the roses. It is not human rights issue that he is fighting for, it is for a NAME that he has no rights to name. If you guys support the Little Saigon name then buy out all the businesses and name it whatever you want. I will support you then but as for now, you (the protestors) have no rights to name it since you have no stakes in it.
I am glad that our Mayor and city council members does not stood down to the scare me tatics and let them have their ways. If they give into you (the protestors) now, I am sure the next time when there is a new park or library, etc.... You would protest there to get the name of Little Saigon too. Actually why don't we just name it the Andrea's business district and see how you or the owner feel? Everyone would object to it since they are the one paying for the name. We are wasting a lot of time and money of city to resolve what? What is in a NAME? How about educations, poverty, housing, budget in our city, etc.........

[M.T.]

Wow, it is finally over. Here is the link to the news: http://www.mercurynews.com/ci_8561149?nclick_check=1

Now I support this because someone came up with the funds of their own to ask the Mayor and City council members to put up the signs of "Welcome to Little Saigon", and pay for it.
This is what I am talking about vietguy, whoever is doing this, did it the right way. He has the stakes in it so he can call it whatever he wants. This is a good day for everyone involve. Now we can be at peace and attack more important issues in our little city of San Jose. Thanks to Andrea Nguyen for putting this blogs up for a good discussions even if the opinions are a bit wild and crazy. It is OVER, lets move on...

Andrea, I think your website is great. I would never have discover it until I was searching for this latest news on this issue with a NAME Little Saigon. I will bookmark it because it has bunch of good recipes and suggestions.

[Andrea Nguyen]

Hi MT, thanks for the link and the support for this site. I'm a professional writer, cookbook author and cooking teacher. But when this topic started simmering, I thought it may have boiled over. Glad to know that the flame was tamed at the end.

Yes, time to move on. Hope the markets and restaurants on Story road will benefit from this.

[Long]

The whole thing was a joke! I live in San Jose. Half of my relatives were killed by the communists, the others were killed by US, French during the war.

I hate communists as much as I can hate but what the supporters of little Saigon did were not for the sake of demoncracy.

How many Vietnameses live in San Jose areas? How many showed up for at city hall? Do the math! They keep saying "the voice of the community". Whose voices? I think a lot of young Vietnameses can't even related to the name Saigon. Are they not considered Vietnamese?

If those people really love Vietnam, they should think about people who are still stuck in Vietnam under communists' rules. They should have stayed overthere and fought for freedom. If the US-backed Vietnamese government hadn't been corrupted, we wouldn't have lost Vietnam to the communists in the first place.

I spent 4 years in refugee camp in Thailand. The Vietnamese community leaders were the ones who served Thai millitary to persecute the boat people who arrived after them.

It's sad that we don't know how to appreciate demoncracy yet. I don't know how many more years until the Vietnamese can work together.

I wonder what all of the poor Vietnamese in Vietnam think of this "fight for demoncracy" over here.

[M.T.]

Long,

I totally agree with you, I feel the same way. I was in the Thailand refugee camp for 3 years myself before coming to the U.S. in San Jose. I have live here in since 1980.
Like I said in all of my posting, we are NOT fighting for demoncracy here. We are fighting over a naming of business centers. Of which I feel these protesters have no rights to name, in my opinion. As for Mr. Ly Tong, I am lost for words when he said he is doing it for demoncracy? I honestly feel Mr. Ly Tong was trying to copy Cesar Chavez. But this is totally different, Mr. Ly Tong is fighting over a NAME. There is NO comparison if you ask me. Either way, I am glad this is over and now we can move on.

[sj viet guy]

Many of your posts are oppinions are irrelevant because you don't have enough information to understand the reason why we fight for Little Saigon. Why waste your time with frustration?
You all should go out there and get litteratures from Ly Tong and the people who fight for LS in front of the City Hall and read for yourself and then you make you call after you have enough information. Stop your frustration now and go get some info before you bother with this problem.

[vinh]

Ly Tong is a perenial showman who has nothing better to do.
How pitiable and pathetic.Enough said.

[M.T.]

sj viet guy,

You are just totally missing the point. I totally agree with Vinh about Ly Tong. Let just stop at that and move on. Life is too short to be bothering with a name. Why don't you and Ly Tong fight for a better cause. You know that Ly Tong and the protestors did not win anything here. The city only approve for sign to be put near by and only temporary for a year now instead of 3 years. As long as someone is paying for the sign NOT tax payers money, I do not care how long it is up or what NAME you would like to call it. Let me repeat again "I DO NOT CARE" what you want to call it as long as the $$$ is NOT coming out of our city tax dollars.

[Peter]

I support the name Little Saigon but I do NOT support this vocal group of protesters and their abusive usage of the word DEMOCRACY.
Nor do I support Ly Tong as he proved that he is just clamoring for fame instead of really fighting for a real cause of democracy.