Koreatown vs... Little Bangladesh?

Yesterday the New York Times shed light on a heated but little-known controversy at the heart of the city - the fight for name recognition between LA's Koreans and Bangladeshis. The six-square mile area that is home to the largest Korean population outside of Korea is apparently not recognized as a neighborhood on the city's official maps. So in October, many were surprised to learn that an application had been filed with a city to name a small area within Koreatown - Little Bangladesh.

The application comes at a time when there are believed to be some 15,000 Bangladeshis living in the city. It is an attempt to recognize the fast-growing and underappreciated Bangladeshi population here. But the move has been met with stringent opposition by area Korean groups who point to the jungle of Korean restaurants, businesses, and signage, in lieu of an official designation. But to the average Angeleno who references Thomas Bros. or drives past scenes like the one above, Koreatown is very much a reality. Little Bangladesh, frankly, is not.

Even city councilman Tom LaBonge, whose district includes parts of Koreatown, is fighting fiercely for Korean civic groups, saying that he has doubts about the level of commitment on the part of the Bangladeshis. Ethnic enclaves are certainly not new to Los Angeles (Byzantine-Latino Quarter, Chinatown, Filipinotown, Little Armenia, Little Ethiopia, Little Tokyo, Thaitown) but this conflict is different for two reasons. First is the sheer size and weight of Koreatown. Its influence is unquantifiable city- and even region-wide. Secondly, it represents one ethnic minority attempting to supplant another. Historically, tension has been primarily between existing whites and incoming immigrants. A neighborhood council boardmember put it nicely: "it's nice to embrace other communities, as long as it's not in our backyard. Or in our front yard." Ahh, good ol' LA cohesion. Have we learned nothing from the riots?