CSU Monterey Bay Attempts to Revive Salinas Chinatown Area

 Salinas' Chinatown was a 12-block area cut off from the rest of the city by railroad tracks that has long disappeared. The Chinatown area is just to the northeast of Old Town Salinas, across Market Street and the railroad tracks.
 
 However, recent grants and the efforts of California State University Monterey Bay's Service Learning Institute aims to restore the area. The initiative is called the Chinatown renewal Project.A recent charrette or design exercise at the Buddhist Temple in Chinatown made plans for condominiums and commercial activity as well as a pedestrian bridge to connect Chinatown to the main area of Old Town.

CSUMB is in the second year of its three-year HUD grant. The university's students participating in its community service program have already built a community garden, with handicapped-accessible paths, containers for flowers and vegetables and stone benches. There is also micro enterprise program is progressing and the Women Alive! silk-screening and T-shirt Cooperative. The university also has a project office in the area.

The area is still populated by the homeless men and women seen in tents and sleeping bags.