Press Releases - 2011

 Astella Kung, 64, is known as the unofficial mayor of Grant Avenue, the heart of San Francisco’s Chinatown. A short woman who speaks in a nasally Cantonese dialect, she is the owner of Ming Kee Game Birds, a dingy shop crammed with chickens, ducks and pigeons in wire-mesh cages. Ms. Kung moved to Grant in 1971, a 24-year-old newlywed with $50 in her pocket. 

Asian Americans have deep roots in San Francisco, and in recent decades those roots have only grown deeper. Since the '70s, Asian Americans have become the fastest growing racial group in the city. Today, they make up a third of the population. For decades they've held important posts and mobilized influential voting blocs. But no Asian American has ever won a mayoral election in San Francisco.