Chi Mui, civil rights hero, died Thursday, April 27, 2006, from cancer. Chi, a native of Hong Kong, was Mayor of San Gabriel and was elected to the city council in 2003, the first Asian American to hold each post.

In November 1999 Chi Mui, Luis MacAdams, and Arthur Golding took me to lunch at the Chinatown Carousel to share their dream about creating a park in the Cornfield in the heart of downtown Los Angeles as part of the greening of the Los Angeles River. Chi was then a Chinatown activist and political staffer, Luis MacAdams a poet and founder of Friends of the Los Angeles River, and Arthur Golding an architect who drew conceptual plans for the park. After lunch, Chi drove me around the Cornfield for the first time. The Chinatown Yard Alliance was born, spawning the community organizing effort, administrative complaint before HUD, and lawsuit that stopped the proposal for 32 acres of warehouses to create what is now the Los Angeles State Historic Park. “Nothing like this has ever happened in Chinatown before,” Chi said. “We’ve never had such a victory. And now, every time people walk with their children down to that park, they’ll see that great things can happen when folks come together and speak up. We can renew our community one dream at a time.” Although Chi did not live to see the park completed, his dream has forever changed Los Angeles and the urban park movement. Thank you, Chi, and our condolences to Betty and his family.
Robert Garcia