Jack London Chinatown

Will Jack London and Chinatown eventually blend to form one large district? Judging by this article, it would seem that developers are betting on it. According to the president of Signature Properties, their "300 Harrison" project became "288 Third Street" because "We wanted eights" -- a lucky number in Chinese culture. The article points to other developments along these lines.

This is an interesting, though admittedly nascent, trend: will Chinatown lose its concentration of retail as the residents disperse to surrounding blocks? Or will Chinatown metastasize, swallowing up the warehouse district and attracting new residents from all over the Bay Area, now that there are more residences on the market? Will Jack London's retail center of gravity (such as it is) move away from the foot of Broadway and closer to Seventh and Webster? Perhaps none of this will happen and the changes will be imperceptible. As far as I'm concerned, what Jack London needs is more residential density, which will lead to more retail diversity. Increasing the pool of potential buyers by catering to a discrete market will only help us toward that goal.