Sometimes even the smallest things can be controversial in Little Saigon.
But a move by San Jose to name its own Vietnamese enclave Little Saigon is going over without protest in Orange County, home to the largest number of Vietnamese outside of Vietnam.
“No one owns the Little Saigon name,” said Frank Jao, a real estate developer who played a big part in the development of OC’s Little Saigon in the 1970s. “Even if San Jose uses it, I don’t think it will impact Orange County in a bad way.”
For several months, San Jose has debated whether to name an area known for its concentration of Vietnamese businesses Little Saigon.
The city has the second-highest number of Vietnamese-Americans after OC’s Little Saigon, which runs through parts of Westminster, Garden Grove, Fountain Valley, Santa Ana and Huntington Beach.
Given the contentious nature of OC’s Little Saigon,where store displays and building designs have set off protests and community rifts,you’d think sharing the name might set off another north-south war.
For the past few years, Huntington Beach and Santa Cruz battled over the Surf City USA name.
But that’s “not likely” with the Little Saigons, said Linda Vo, chair of the Asian American Studies at University of California, Irvine.
“The branding of a city creates competition, but this situation is different because the name Little Saigon serves a different purpose for the Vietnamese community,” she said.
The prospect of having a Little Saigon in San Jose could spur business, according to Jao.
“Businesses in both areas can network with each other,” he said.
Vietnamese-owned businesses in San Jose or OC,say restaurants, boutiques and salons,may find that expanding their business to another Little Saigon could be easier and more profitable than opening elsewhere, UC Irvine’s Vo said.
“Having two Little Saigons in California can be a positive experience for businesses,” she said. “There are so many networks within the Vietnamese community that can help local businesses expand their reach to Vietnamese in both areas because the districts are somewhat similar.”
San Jose voters are set to weigh in this month on a proposal to name part of their city Little Saigon. The issue has had its share of controversy: locals first balked at the proposed “Saigon Business District,” saying it didn’t pay as much homage to their pre-communist South Vietnam as the Little Saigon name would.
As with OC’s Little Saigon, politics from the once-divided country permeate local issues.
San Jose saw protests, petition drives and threats to recall a Vietnamese city councilwoman over the name issue.
But the Little Saigon name seems to be more of a uniting factor for local Vietnamese and their northern counterparts. Like OC Vietnamese, most of those in San Jose left Vietnam after the fall of the south or are offspring of those who left.
In that sense, the Little Saigon name is more rooted in cultural beliefs and politics rather than just tourism or business interests, Vo said.
Little Saigons could follow the lead of Chinatowns, which are found in cities across the country.
San Jose is home to some 100,000 Vietnamese. OC boasts the largest group with some 200,000 Vietnamese residents and 6,000 Vietnamese-owned businesses, most in Little Saigon.
There also are sizable Vietnamese enclaves in Houston and New Orleans.
San Jose’s adoption of the name isn’t likely to dent OC’s role as the capital of Vietnamese-American life, said Henry Nguyen, a director of the Vietnamese American Chamber of Commerce in Westminster.
“We’re the largest and we’re the most established,” he said.
Little Saigon counts about 1 million square feet of retail space with everything from grocery stores and restaurants to insurance offices and salons, he said.
For Vietnamese-Americans outside OC, Little Saigon is the source of Vietnamese-American news and entertainment with its array of newspapers and radio and television stations.
Meanwhile, OC’s Little Saigon still is forging ahead with plans to stand out, part of a long-running plan to bolster the area as many younger Vietnamese spread out to different parts of the county or state.
Last year, the city of Westminster commissioned a $60,000 study with the Urban Land Institute of Washington, D.C., to plan out Little Saigon’s future development.
The city plans to revitalize Little Saigon by working with developers to build high-end office, stores and other commercial space.
Westminster plans to build two archways over Bolsa Avenue at Magnolia Street and at Bolsa and Ward Street that will serve as a gateway to Little Saigon in order to boost tourism and the area’s look and feel.
The plan comes a decade after Jao scrapped a plan to build a $3 million bridge over Bolsa Avenue, which received criticism from some local Vietnamese for its perceived Chinese influences.
The city wants to make its section of Little Saigon more pedestrian friendly by building more walkways.
The goal is to make Little Saigon a shopping and dining destination for many types of people, including tourists.
