(upbeat electronic music) - [Bill] Detroit City Council had requested the decrepit building be temporarily spared from demolition.

3143 Cass Avenue considered the heart of what was once Chinatown.

Asian American groups called a press conference last week for this Monday to try to save it.

Too late, had been smashed down over the weekend.

- I'm an immigrant.

I deeply understand the importance of knowing our history so that we don't repeat the wrongs of our past.

And quite frankly, I did not expect the administration in Olympia to play hardball with history.

I expected us to slow down a little.

- Arrogance is not a good trait in politics.

Neither is greed.

Neither is cynicism.

And all three were at play here, unfortunately at the expense of part of the history of the city.

- [Bill] History, things that happened not that long ago.

- [Nicole] This is the lower corridor, part of the larger Cass corridor.

- [Bill] Filmmaker Nicole McDonald told some of the story in her 2018 documentary, "Last Days of Chinatown" an examination of human displacement.

- [Nicole] They run along Cass Street, in the center of the lower corridor.

- [Bill] Olympia Development of Michigan.

an Illitch Company, owns this property.

The city has wished it torn down for years.

- Many might say, why make a fuss over an old crumbly building?

The fuss is not so much over a building, but over the spiritual loss of a once alive and vibrant community.

Our feelings of loss is not unlike that with the African American brothers and sisters who felt when Black Bottom and Paradise Valley, Detroit's cultural musical hub were urbanized.

- [Bill] I-375 took out those Black neighborhoods in the early 1960s, around the time Detroit's first Chinatown was displaced by the city too, making way for the lodge Freeway.

- [Nicole] Chinatown had had markets and schools set up, a clinic, there were 53 restaurants, and over 3000 Chinese people living there.

- [Bill] So then the business district moved to Cass Avenue south of Mack.

- [Nicole] They set up markets and restaurants again and had festivals in the new spot.

But the new Chinatown, it never became what the original place had been, and a lot of Chinese felt their neighborhood had been destroyed in the move.

- I think basically during the eighties it was shutting down.

Chinatown was dissolving.

- [Bill] Here's Chinatown then.

As seen in the 1987 film "Who Killed Benton Chin."

- My grandfather came here in the thirties and think about just the race relations at the time.

So getting a job was difficult.

So they did what they knew, which was cook.

They cooked.

- [Bill] Carolyn Chin Watson's family owned the Shanghai Cafe in the 3143 building.

- Actually, it was James's family that sold the restaurant to my family.

Long story short is that they were able to live and grow a family, and that's just one of the many family stories that come from Detroit's Chinatown.

- There's no disputing the progress has been made in this area, but there's a cost to that progress.

But you compare Detroit to other cities like Chicago.

They have a respect for their history.

It's obvious when you walk through the city.

And I think one of the underlying problems in this metro Detroit area is the fact that we don't have a connection to the past.

We don't have agreement, understanding with each other about our past, our shared past.

And consequently, we are ripe to misinformation and misunderstanding.

- [Bill] Roland Wong leads ACJ, the American Citizens for Justice.

- And it was actually at 3143, the Chinese Merchant Association building at the time that had its inaugural meeting where ACJ got its name.

There are so many memories that are just rekindled by what's happened over the last few days.

- Justice for Vincent Chin!

- [Bill] ACJ emerged after Vincent Chin was killed in 1982, as anger was directed at Japanese whose imports hurt domestic car sales.

Asian Americans joined together, found a voice in the protests.

- This is a ground that is historic, because it actually was key to a movement that's centered around Vincent Chin, but then spread nationwide.

Seeing the demolition on Saturday was devastating for many of us, but I really believe that the city and Olympia have an opportunity, if they choose to take it, to work hand in hand with the Asian American community, with descendants of Detroit's Chinatown, to actually celebrate history and to recognize the importance of the community.

- [Bill] What's left, the long closed Chung's restaurant, a couple more buildings, and a few reminders of the Chinatown that was.

- I'm dedicated and committed to ensuring that we do designate Chinatown as historic.

It is not yet, and we need to it.

It is a must.

We have to do that moving forward.