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Page 4
March 02, 2011
Betting on the Neighborhood
In the follow ing year, the p ro p ­
erty had fallen into a level o f d isre­
M ongolian-style restaurants, e sp e ­ p air that it needed four large g a r­
cially after C h an g ’s M ongolian Grill bage dum psters to clear all the d e ­
closed at Jantzen B each last year.
bris, Jonathan Park said, including
O pening a restaurant w ith no a l­ chairs o ff the roof. He said the sim ple
cohol will he a dram atic turn for the act o f cleaning up the property has
property, w hich was linked to a drug area business ow ners and residents
operation in 2009. Jam es Y oakum , stopping by to verbally applaud.
w ho worked as a cook at Yam Yam ’ s,
"P eo p le are alw ays stopping by
pleaded guilty to running a drug to say they appreciate w hat w e’re
operation through the restaurant. doing w ith the p ro p erty ,” Jonathan
Y am Y am ’s ow ner Larry M atthew s Park said. “T hat m akes us feel very
w as exonerated, but the business w elcom e.”
tanked by the follow ing sum m er.
W hile the business sits outside
c o n tin u e d
fr o m fr o n t
the kind o f urban renew al district
that that has helped o th er M LK
ventures like V anport Square, south
o f K illingsw orth Street, the location
is also w ithout a focused business
group. Just blocks aw ay, th e re ’s the
Interstate C orridor B usiness A sso­
ciation and further west the K enton
B usiness A ssociation.
“ W e are kind o f by ourselves
here,” A ngela Park said. “ It m ight
take som e tim e to get our nam e out,
but there are plenty o f people w ho
like o ur food and th ere’s no other
restaurant like ours around here, so
Readers
of all ages
th a t’s g o o d .”
Jonathan Park said h e ’s m ore
than happy to en ter into a tough
situation having grow n up in a poor
section o f H aw aii.
“This is right out o f m y back­
ground, so it’s not som ething I’m
scared of,” he said. "The econom y
isn’t all that strong right now, and this
isn’t an area that people m ight ju m p
at, but the econom y will pick up and
the neighborhood is changing to be
ready for a restaurant like this.”
A ngela Park em igrated from K o­
rea tw o decades ago and said this
k in d o f b u s in e s s c h a lle n g e is
straight from her past, too.
T he Parks looked at the vacant
building at M LK and A lberta, which
o n ce h o u sed the A d id as O u tlet
Store, but decided the space was
too big even though it w as w ithin
the urban renew al area. The form er
A didas space w ill soon re-open as
a Pizza Hut.
T he Parks both say that w hile
they feel the neig h b o rh ood is ready
to support their restaurant, they can
feel a m uted sense o f com m unity
loss from the closure o f Y am Y am ’s,
w hich had becom e a cultural land-
maric
“ W hen we first started to w ork
on the building, a lady drove up and
asked if she co u ld take a picture o f
the sign,” A ngela Park said. “ She
said she w as going to m iss the res­
taurant because it had been there so
long. W e hope w e ’re going to be
here a long tim e, to o .”
There are stories that can change people,
change their whole lives. If they let them."
ass
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