“We have people who want to change the entire 1400 block. That’s a potential of 3,000 addresses that could be changed,” said Councilman Roger Chandler, who is against restarting the program. “If we can save somebody from taking a financial bath, we should,” said Bob Harbicht, the council member who first brought the topic up. Asians, predominantly Chinese, now make up nearly 60% of Arcadia’s population. Some of those facing numbers problems bought their properties many decades ago, before the Asian influx. The council will revisit the issue next month. This month, the City Council voted 3 to 2 in support of bringing back the old address-changing program, pending a study of the costs. “The only reason we’re not feeling the pain of, say, Glendora and Monrovia is because of the Asians.” “I don’t remember the last house I built I sold to a white person in Arcadia, except maybe for one,” said Grohs. Lately though, with Chinese buyers providing the only bright spot in a slow real estate market, complaints about bad numbers have been on the rise again. But five years ago, it abandoned that program after city workers complained about how onerous and confusing the process of changing addresses had become. At the time, like numerous other San Gabriel Valley cities, it decided to allow people to change inauspicious numbers - for a fee. Twenty years ago, Arcadia dealt with similar complaints from residents about numbers when the city started seeing a dramatic rise in Chinese homeownership.
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