Susan Hsieh informed me via SMS that the City College of San Francisco board of trustees Thursday night approved several resolutions enabling the Chinatown campus project to move foward.
This represents a major win for a broad coalition, coordinated by Vin Pan and Susan at CAA, of over 100 community organizations and leaders in support of the campus has collected over 23,000 petition signatures and over 10,000 individual postcards demanding appoval last night.
For over 30 years, the San Francisco Chinatown community has fought for a permanent campus to provide generations of immigrant students with equal access to educational opportunities, such as learning English, preparing for citizenship exams, and acquiring job skills. Classrooms are currently scattered throughout a dozen deteriorating and inconvenient spaces, and at the primary location, students and faculty suffer debris falling on their heads and are forced to use child-size toilets.
Unfortunately, owners of the nearby Hilton Hotel, desperate to preserve their guest-room views, continued to dispatch high-priced lawyers and lobbyists in a ruthless campaign of opposition. Long on cash and short on scruples, they proclaimed “support” for a campus, while at the same time financing endless schemes to derail its progress.
The fight came down to the wire. The fate of the permanent campus rested in the hands of the seven elected members of the Board of Trustees: Natalie Berg, Anita Grier, Milton Marks, Julio Ramos, John Rizzo, Rodel Rodis, and Lawrence Wong. We’ll find out soon how which trustees voted to support the Chinatown campus.
Keith Kamisugi 
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