In the late 19th century, The Chinese Exclusion Act was passed
to restrict the Chinese community from expanding. So as new immigrants
arrived from China each year, the density of San Francisco Chinatown increased
without any possible ways to expand.
Such restriction was designed to discourage the Chinese from immigrating
to the United States. By 1882, there were 15,000 people living in an area
consisting of only 12 city blocks.
Much to the dismay of lawmakers however, the Exclusion Act failed to shut down Chinatown. In a mysterious way , Chinatown continued its economic activities uninterrupted.
The secret to this mystery could only be found in the plan view. In plan view, we see numerous alleyways being carved out of the existing city blocks. Over the years, city blocks were carved out - one by one - so that more public transactions could take place. These alleyways increased the surface area of public contact so substantially that Chinatown became a self-sufficient entity with housing, businesses, and recreational activities all compacted into one area.The alleyways were privately owned and were not shown on the official city maps until quite recently. And because one could access the basement of any buildings from the alleyways, they quickly turned into an intricate network system connecting both the ground and the underground together.
The layout of San Francisco Chinatown was ideal for the brewing of radical
ideas and innovative (subversive) activities.
Since immigration was an indirect result of Western Imperialism, it was
not surprising that San Francisco Chinatown should be a hotbed for Dr.
Sun Yat-sen's underground revolutionaries.
These revolutionaries would eventually succeed in overthrowing the Qing
Dynasty; ending over 2000 years of Chinese feudalism in 1911.
San Francisco Chinatown has since became one of the highest density neighborhood in the United State, yet it's building heights remain only at 3 to 4 stories high.
Despite its spontaneous ways and informalities, San Francisco Chinatown shows a highly efficient land-use planning unmatched anywhere else in the United States.
One
could find other systems in nature that tend to exhibit similar configuration
when faced with a limited area and the need to maximize surface. Our brain
is one good example.
Cities are like the brain in their
ability to generate ideas, economic activities, and connectivity. Cities
with large highways, super-blocks, and neatly defined zoning laws, tend
to be rather dull and uninteresting cities at best. Historically suburban
low-density cities are never the center of new ideas and creative experimentations.
With the new age of the internet, however, this may change, since people
could form intricate social network in the cyberspace while sitting in
an isolated suburban tract house. Yet it remains to be seen whether accidental
human interactions, which are so vital to the generation of new ideas,
could be found in a non-physical setting.
Koch's Snowflake shows similar characteristics as Chinatown's alleyways. As the perimeter (alleyways) of the original triangle increases, the enclosed area (the city block) remains approximately the same. Theoretically, the perimeter of the "snowflake" could increase to "infinity" while the enclosed area remains finite.
More information: http://mathworld.wolfram.com/KochSnowflake.html
