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Local realtor tornados Chinatown plan

South Miami considered to be an ideal place for Chinatown

By Pengyu Chen

CORAL GABLES, Fla. (April 20, 2017) —The air inside the darkened briefing room is heavy with the heat of a common late South Florida spring, with no more than 20 people sitting around tables starring at a dazzling screen. “It’s really hard to image the ambitious North Miami’s conceptual Chinatown plan was announced in such a place.” Said Nathan in the back row.

Nine years ago, when he was busy pursuing a MBA degree up in Ohio, Nathan Hao Hu could never imagine that he would someday breathe the fresh Atlantic air among a bunch of beautifully pruned palm trees.

When he first heard about the Chinatown plan, Nathan was thrilled.

 “This has been something all of us have ever wanted,” he said smiling. “With this, we probably don’t have to fly all the way to New York for a simon-pure Jianbing.”

According to government officials, the Chinatown plan was initialed to stimulate local economy in the designated area where roughly 22 percent of the population earning less than $15,000 per year. However, Nathan thinks North Miami wouldn’t make the best location for a potential profitable Chinatown.

“if I am gonna decide location of china town in greater Miami Area,” Nathan put. “It would be somewhere in south Miami, neither in North Miami Beach, nor North Miami.”

As a realtor now, Nathan has been living in Miami for more than eight years. He has witnessed the tremendous growth of Chinese population during these years, especially in the South Miami area, where he believes to be an ideal place for the Chinatown.

For South Miami, although it’s already established years ago, it still has a lot of room to build on. “Plus, location advantage of S.M. close to Metro, UM, US. 1, Dadeland, Coral Gables, Pinecrest, Coconut Grove, and so on,” Nathan added. “Those places are top cities in the greater Miami Area.” There’s better neighborhood and better schools than north. And potential consuming capacity is much higher here comparatively.

“I remember the days when I first moved here in Miami, there were only about 100 UM Chinese students in grad school, and many of them are PhD students.” But now there are over 1000 UM Chinese students, majority are undergrads.

Nathan believes the growing of Chinese students here can be a potential asset for the Chinatown plan. Chinese parents invest a lot of money on their child/children’s education.

“As you know, UM is not cheap,” he noted. “Students are paying over $60,000 every year on tuition.” Above that, living expenses to each student can easily go from $40,000 to $60,0000 a year.

“Because of students, more entrepreneurs/small business owners choose or relocate to Miami.”

Nathan also gave his insight on Miami’s real estate market. In the past five years, median sales price in Miami was about $160,000. Five years later, it’s gone up to $27,200, 9.2% increase for year over year.

“It’s probably not the best time for investment,” he said. “But it’s better sooner than later, given the current trend.”

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Shoot the Hazing

When he first joined fraternity at his freshman year, Alejandro Victor Pallares could never imagine that someday soon, he would make a film about it. The short film “Pledge,” which centers around new members of a fraternity, will debut at this year’s Canes Film Festival.

Alejandro, 23, a film student at UM, is scriptwriter and director of “Pledge.” Remarkably, “Pledge” is his first own film ever, though he’s worked on other films.

“I pulled the name directly from the script,” Alejandro says. “The story is about new members of a fraternity, otherwise known as pledges, so the title ‘Pledge’ seemed like an appropriate choice.”

The short drama spotlights the potential dangers of fraternity hazing. “My main motivation for making this film was curiosity,” he points out. “Entering college, I knew very little about the fraternity system and its history.

As time went by, I started learning more and more, and what made the strongest impression on me was the fact that many young men have died during the hazing rituals involved in joining a fraternity,” he stressed. “Reading about that led me to ask why those incidents happen. This film is an exploration of that question.”

In film, fraternities are often portrayed in a comedic light, but Alejandro thinks it’s also important to recognize that not everything about joining a fraternity is a good old time.

Alejandro’s concept changed several times until he realized his concern about the phenomenon of fraternity hazing. “It wasn’t my intention originally,” he says, “but I hope this film can serve an educational purpose for young men entering college in coming years.”

Funny things happened during shooting. “The cast really bonded during the days we were filming the hazing scenes, which is ironic because here we are making this movie about what can go wrong in hazing,” Alejandro explained. “And meanwhile the people pretending to be hazed are bonding with each other and even with the people who are pretending to haze them, which is exactly what can go right in hazing.”

Alejandro earned his bachelor’s degree in journalism from Northwestern University, where in his senior year, he made up his mind to study film.

He likes UM’s film program because of its “holistic nature.”

“You do have to choose a concentration (e.g. directing, screenwriting, editing, etc.),” he says, “but you’re not restricted from taking courses in other disciplines as you might be in other programs.”

“I think it’s a great event,” he says smiling. “It gives students a chance to celebrate their work with their peers and showcase it to industry professionals.”