Immigration lawyer Khanh Vu Duc,seen here in his Somerset Street office, is poised to take on a new challenge as head of the Somerset Street Chinatown BIA..
Khanh Vu Duc’s relationship with Chinatown is “a love affair” – and it just got more serious.
Vu Duc, a lawyer and the former vice-president of the BIA, started his new role as executive director of the Somerset Street Chinatown BIA on March 31.
He fell in love with the neighbourhood when he moved to Chinatown from downtown two years ago. Vu Duc called the BIA immediately and said he wanted to be involved.
“I have a lot of ideas and I am ambitious, but I need people to work together for the best of our community,” he said.
To improve the area, he’s created a “3-D blend:” dialogue, development and destination.
He says he wants to keep a strong line of communication between the BIA, the residents’ association and local businesses. Dialogue within the community would allow the organizations to work together on a plan to beautify and revitalize the area, says Vu Duc.
“I want to have all the people with new ideas work together for the beauty of Somerset.”
The 17 BIAs in the city need to collaborate as well, he adds.
He doesn’t have any formal meetings set up but he has already met with a member of the Dalhousie Community Association, says Khanh.
“Tomorrow, I’m going to sit down and pick up the phone and arrange meetings,” he said March 30, the day before he began his new position.
His development concept involves helping small businesses get the resources they need to improve and prosper.
There are too many businesses that try to survive and they don’t have the resources to renovate, says Vu Duc.
He says he wants to work with the city to help these businesses invest carefully.
“I have my own law practice here, I know how to survive with property taxes,” he says.
If the BIA had a bigger budget, it would be able to help businesses even more.
“The more you give to the BIA, the more you will get back.”
Vu Duc says he hopes that people will come and comment on what they see in Chinatown.
“You will see there are a lot of significant changes.”
And these changes may help with his third “D” – destination.
The three levels of government invested in the Chinatown Gateway and Vu Duc says the area needs to get the return from that investment. He also wants to work with Gatineau’s tourism council to bring visitors from across the river.
“With him at the helm and with his background, he will do a great job of bridging the community and bringing people into Chinatown,” says Valerie Adams, the branch manager at Scotiabank at Bronson Avenue and Somerset Street and a BIA board member.
As Vu Duc has made clear, says Adams, Chinatown needs to open up and show that there’s more than ethnic grocery stores and restaurants.
People need to come and spend more time there and it needs to have a greater presence in Ottawa, she says.
But the main message Vu Duc wants to convey is that “Chinatown is a safe, beautiful place in which every people enjoy to play and work . . . It should be a place where you can raise a family.”
Vu Duc plans to be the executive director for the next three years. Although he’s taking a cut in his income and won’t spend as much time with his law firm, he says he’s dedicated to working for the community.
“We’re in a love story. We’re just near the beginning, we don’t know the end,” says Vu Duc. “However, I hope that it will be a happy ending.”