Summer 2025
Chinatown Revitalization, Events, and News
Hello, Members and Friends of ACES:
We hope you are having a great summer. While there are a few events coming up (including the Obon Festival), for the most part, summer is when we rest and begin planning for next year’s programming and the 2026 Asian Cultural Fair on April 25. First, an update on the Chinatown Revitalization Project:
Salinas Chinatown Revitalization and the Republic Cafe:
Republic Café: The City of Salinas is committed to closing escrow on the Republic Café and Lotus Inn at 37-39 Soledad Street. However, we learned that escrow has not yet closed due to a technicality involving Housing and Urban Development (HUD) funding. An environmental review still needs to be completed to be compliant with HUD Funding. That process is under way and is being completed now. That is the reason for the delay and ACES continues to monitor this situation with the City.
Pre-Design Work for 34-38 Soledad Street (Pool Hall and Chin residence, see image above): The city received a grant for pre-design work at 34-38 Soledad Street, and ACES was involved in the community feedback process about design concepts. The initial design by TEF Architects of San Francisco was to determine capacity of the project. Public feedback indicated that more “Chinatown” architectural effects should be included. More meetings for public feedback will be coming. The “pre-design” work is intended to allow a developer to see allowable parameters for the project, in order to gauge costs and potential revenue. Search for a developer (not identified yet) is the next phase after pre-design.
Pre-design Work for 45 Soledad Street (Republic Hotel, see image above). TEF Architects also began potential design concepts for the City-owned lot at 45 Soledad Street. They presented two designs that tried to replicate the appearance of the old hotel red brick exterior with additional stories to increase capacity. Both 34-38 and 45 Soledad St. are designed as mixed use; with first floor businesses and upper floors as housing.
One of the TEF Architect founders is Douglas Tom, a Chinese American architect from Salinas. He has a personal interest in the designs and future of Salinas Chinatown. Again, these designs function as a road map for developers to view the potential of building in Chinatown. The next phase will be to seek developers for these projects. No developers have been identified yet. For those interested in the Salinas Chinatown Revitalization Plan here is a link to the City of Salinas web page along with a 200+ page pdf of the plan.
MORE NEWS
ACES is honored to be a co-sponsor of the Kansha Nikkei Farm History Project, which documents and publishes the losses of Nikkei (Japanese American) farmers during World War II. We will be hosting a presentation of the project in February, 2026.
ACES Omeka Online Archive is growing! The Omeka platform enables ACES to make portions of our collection public, while providing a system for cataloging our images, objects, and exhibit boards. Visit our archival site to see images from the history of Salinas Chinatown. Thanks to your donations of items and images, this site will continue be a work-in-progress.
SUMMER EVENTS & OFFICE HOURS
All upcoming events for ACES and our partners are now listed on the Calendar page in our website. Highlights for Summer and Fall include the following:
ACES is holding weekly open office hours: every Mon., Wed., and Thurs. at 21 Soledad St., Suite A. Occasionally the hours change: check our Calendar for the current open hours, and stop by for a chat!
OBON Festival: Sat., July 27, 12 noon - 5:00 pm, Buddhist Temple of Salinas, 14 California St., Salinas.
The Chinese Association will hold their Annual Picnic at Toro Park in August. Details TBA.
MCHS BBQ: ACES will participate in this event, Sat., Sept. 20; time TBA
ACES Member Meet Up: Thursday, October 23, 5pm-7pm, Filipino Community Center, 250 Calle Cebu, Salinas.
ACES Tri-Tip BBQ Take-out: Nov. 1; pick up 11:00 am - 1:00 pm, Buddhist Temple of Salinas, 14 California St., Salinas.
Filipino Community of Salinas Valley: The Paraluman Festival will be on hiatus for 2025. FCSV will hold a plate fundraiser on August 7 of this year, and celebrate their 90th anniversary at their community center, 250 Calle Cebu, Salinas.
Finally, looking ahead to 2026, the next Asian Cultural Fair will take place on Sat., April 25, Salinas Chinatown.
GRATITUDE
This past year has been a busy one. We would like to express our gratitude to ACES’ members, volunteers, and donors. We could not move forward without them. Thanks to the many volunteers who helped out at Asian Cultural Fair this year. It was a success!
ACES was a recipient of a 2025-26 Opportunity Grant from Community Foundation for Monterey County! As always, we appreciate their guidance and support.
We are grateful to educator/historian Alex Fabros, Jr. for setting up his birthday fundraiser for ACES on Facebook; to the people who donated to the fundraiser: Thank you! Also, Alex has announced that he will be instructing his family to donate a portion of his archival collection to ACES upon his passing. This is a very important collection pertaining to Salinas Chinatown and Filipino American history in Monterey County.
Alex was featured in the PBS documentary Asian Americans (2020)
MEMBERS & VOLUNTEERS
Starting last year, we began to hold regular member meetups, and have enjoyed sharing snacks, chatting, getting feedback from members, and even playing ping-pong together!
Volunteers are always needed to support ACES’ programs; we can use help with the following:
Staff Our Events
Setting up and taking down tables and chairs
Track numbers of visitors during Asian Fair, lectures, pop-up exhibits, and tours; it may seem minor, but this is an important task that helps us apply for grants.
Learn Chinatown history and inform our visitors; hand out brochures, and keep track of visitor numbers to events.
Use Your Creative and Research Skills
Graphic design, illustration, or lettering for historical exhibits, brochures, and pamphlets; drawing maps of Chinatown; create visualizations or models of our future Chinatown Museum & Cultural Center
Use our materials and online resources to research Chinatown history for exhibits and our archival collections. If you have knowledge of Chinatown history and its residents, you may be able to help us identify images and objects in our collections, and enlarge on our knowledge base.
Videography: Create videos focusing on topics related to Chinatown’s past, present, or future.
Help Out at the ACES Office
Greet visitors, give presentations about Chinatown history; there is still more to discover and learn!
Help work on various projects and set up exhibits (especially during the early Spring before Asian Fair).
Athena Ereno (standing far left), Herb Wong, and Larry Hirahara (standing) gave Lunar New Year Chinatown history presentations to approx. 600 students at several sites in 2025. Thanks to the SCESD Extended Learning Team for facilitating these events! What would you like to do? Please contact us if you would like to help. Chat with an ACES member, participate in an existing project, or design your own with guidance from ACES!
GET INVOLVED!
ACES continues to work with local organizations and students, presenting opportunities for historical pop-ups, exhibits, and tours. Revitalization of Chinatown and creation of a community based cultural center and museum in the Republic Cafe building remains our top priority. Learn more about the organization at our ACES website.
If you are a member of ACES, don’t forget to renew your membership every year. If you are not yet a member, please join!
Questions? Contact us by email at acesalinas2014@gmail.com. Your input is greatly appreciated!
