As APEC officially begins in San Francisco Saturday, the city’s Chinatown wants part of the action.
It was a party in Chinatown Friday night as it hosted its first of two night markets for the neighborhood.
The event happened on the eve of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit or APEC. President Joe Biden and other world leaders and dignitaries from 21 member countries are set to be part of the week-long summit.
“Because of APEC, I want the outside of the community know San Francisco it’s a really big Chinatown. I want them to come enjoy the food and let them know Chinatown is all kind of food, all kind of gift shop. I want them to come and see,” said Lily Lo with BeChinatown.
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Organizers of Friday’s event wanted to show that Chinatown is open for business.
But as the summit is set to create traffic snarls because of secure zones getting set up around the Moscone Convention Center, Embarcadero and Fairmont Hotel right by Chinatown, new concrete barriers were brought Friday night.
Business owners who have already been fighting to survive since the pandemic have fears.
“I do hope that it drives business here but I do fear that because of all the road closures that it might be a ghost town,” said Mindy Fong with Jade Chocolates Teahouse and Café.
The crowds were big in Friday’s event that vendors ran out of food and began filling nearby restaurants.
San Francisco police said while many people have converged on the city and are out, so are they.
“We mobilized as a department today Friday just to make sure that we had all hands on deck. All officers are working we have all officers working at the stations on patrol,” said San Francisco police assistant chief David Lazar. “More officers in the neighborhoods and we have a lot of officers in the downtown area.”
This happening as the U.S. government uses the summit to stabilize its complex , which has gotten worse during the pandemic and now with President Biden in office.
Earlier Friday, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen met with her Chinese counterpart ahead of a formal meeting with President Joe Biden and China’s President Xi Jing Ping outside of the summit next week.
The city of San Francisco is also trying to what it can to shore up its own reputation in the international spotlight.
“All eyes are in San Francisco right now,” said San Francisco resident Kathy La. “It would be nice to kind of prove to everyone we’re a thriving city.”
Chinatown will have another night market on Saturday from 5 p.m. to 9 p.m. Organizers are promising more food than Friday's event.
For those who want to attend the event or visit San Francisco on Saturday, police are asking the public to be patient with all the traffic, crowds and to not drive if they don’t have to.
