AAPI business owners share struggles, successes with Nevada Sen. Cortez Masto

A woman arrived at Santy Luang’s shop in Chinatown last week disoriented and not fully dressed.

Luang, the owner of Bambū Desserts & Drinks on Spring Mountain Road, said she immediately called the police to get help for the woman. Luang later learned the woman was a survivor of human trafficking.

Luang said the incident influenced her to post signage in the bathroom of her business raising awareness about trafficking.

Her story was part of a discussion hosted Wednesday by U.S. Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto, D-Nev., with business owners from the Asian American Pacific Islander Chamber of Southern Nevada to detail challenges they are facing.

The chamber, which launched last year, is a nonprofit dedicated to celebrating cultural diversity, establishing equity, strong neighborhoods and sustainable infrastructure for communities and Southern Nevada’s future economy, according to the organization’s website.

“Within the one-year period, the chamber has grown. Their hope was to have 100 businesses. They have almost 300 businesses,” Cortez Masto said. “That just shows you the strength of entrepreneurship here in Southern Nevada and why it’s important we continue to support them.”

The meeting was hosted at Urban Matcha on South Jones Boulevard, an area Cortez Masto said she was more than familiar with because she was raised a few streets away.

“The same buildings are here, but it has been transformed in the types of businesses we see and the diversity of those businesses that are here,” the senator added.

During the discussion, the chamber members raised concerns about safety and accessibility, citing break-in incidents at their businesses and the limitations of public transportation.

Luang said the break-ins seem to be especially prevalent during the holiday season, and she believes more police patrolling the area would help.

“It’s very sad because sometimes we get people that are going to our neighboring businesses, just enjoying breakfast, and their luggage is getting stolen right in front of my store,” she added.

The Asian American Pacific Islander Native Hawaiian community is an integral part of Nevada demographics. The Silver State is among the top three states with the highest percentage of the population who identify as part of the community alongside another race, according to data from the 2020 Census.

The pandemic saw devastation nationwide among Asian-led businesses with the rise of hate crimes and anti-Asian sentiments. Some of those businesses that hung on are continuing to recover from that backlash.

Cortez Masto pointed to legislation she is working on that she said would benefit the chamber, the Supporting New Businesses Act. The act, which she and Sen. Jerry Moran, R-Kan., first introduced in 2022 but never made it out of committee, has been reintroduced and would require “the Small Business Administration (SBA) to provide annual awards that would encourage states and localities to reduce red tape and streamline the process for starting a new business.”

The senator said the act had bipartisan support, but the issue now is “how we move it through a committee hearing in the short calendar that we have to get things done.” The current Congress will be dissolved shortly after the start of 2025, when newly elected representatives and senators are sworn into office.

Cortez Masto told the business owners that some concerns, like public transit needs, aren’t fully in her jurisdiction at the federal level, but she would like to initiate conversations with stakeholders and to begin having the conversations that may lead to progress.

“(It’s important that) our small business continue to be supported by the SBA here, that they know about the federal funds that are available for them, they know about the programs that support our small businesses to help them succeed, that outreach and education are constant, and I’ll always be doing that,” Cortez Masto said.