the business is accessible and often lucrative for

replica designer handbags distrust of immigrant street vendors is rising even as New York Chinatown

The main artery of New York's Chinatown looks no different than it does at dawn. Except for the locals who disappear into convenience stores or banks to run errands, the street of one of New York's main tourist attractions is strangely quiet for a mid summer's Friday.

The street vendors who hawk vegetables, fruit, fresh coconut, fish still flapping their gills, and Chinese kitsch such as silk dresses and fake jade, see few if any customers. Mr. Ma, a street artist who paints names for a living, sets up his pastels and brushes on an ironing board on the corner of Mott Street, and waits for business. Since Sept. 11 and SARS, Chinatown's businesses and street vendors have seen business drop and tourists disappear; businesses have recovered only 60 percent of what they were before Sept. 11, according to the non profit Chinatown Manpower Project.

Mr. Ma, a matchstick thin, middle aged man, said that he didn't see it getting any better; like most of the businesspeople in this closed community he did not speak English, and would not disclose his full name. "I don't even know why the tourists come here, what is there to see? I mean there's nothing here, no attractions, the food isn't even that good," Mr. Ma complained in Mandarin, as he fiddled with his pastels. "This place is filthy not like the other Fake Louis Vuitton Replica Bags neighborhoods where with foreigners who keep it clean, that's the problem with the Chinese."

If Mr. Ma wanted the answer to his question, he only needed to turn a corner and peer down Canal Street, which was quickly filling up with tourists toting digital cameras and video cams. Just five blocks south of Mr. Ma's easels a huge crowd was forming on the corner of Canal and Broadway. They weren't coming for Mr. Ma's art, they weren't coming to buy bamboos or "I Love NY" T shirts, and they weren't coming for the roasted duck and egg foo young; they were coming for the Louis Vuittons.

"What's going on over there?" a woman asked, as she pointed at the growing crowd. Nearby a double decked New York Sightseeing bus screeched to a stop, and more tourists disembarked to join the throng. Through the spaces between arms and knees, one could see what all the commotion was about. A dozen or so Chinese were peddling fake Louis Vuittons handbags, Coach bags, Burberry wallets and Gucci purses, from black garbage bags. They congregated around the mouth of the subway stop leaving non shopaholic pedestrians angry at the traffic jam, and forced to walk in the streets.

"Louvey, louvey, buy cheap, buy cheap!" the peddlers screamed, a disorganized chorus with knock offs dangling from their arms. The sounds of bargaining filled the air.

"Fifty dolla!" a woman with a buzz cut screamed.

"Twenty five," the savvy tourist said.

"Forty dollar, that's it," the buzz cut woman said. The tourist turned a shoulder and began to walk away.

"Okay, come back come back, $35 cheapest," the buzz cut woman said. The bag, in Louis Vuitton's latest pattern, was sold for less than 91 percent than its price of $378 for a real Louis Vuitton.

The tourists say they came here just for the shopping. Esther Cruz, a wide eyed woman from Colombia comes to New York to visit relatives every year, and always makes a pit stop at Chinatown to buy the counterfeits. "It's so much cheaper here, maybe in my country all of this is for $300, but here it's just $100," Cruz said, carrying two bags filled with fake branded bags.

Leigh Sullivan, a 17 year old from St. Louis, MO, said she had a shopping list ready a month ahead for her visit. "I have to get my morn an LV, a fake Burberry umbrella, a Crocodile bag and Gucci sunglasses."

However, as with any illegal business, selling and buying the knock offs comes with risks. The peddlers are frequently sought by the police officers who circle the streets on mopeds and motorcycles, in vans and cars. The chorus of "Buy cheap, buy Louveys!" stopped. The peddlers swiftly shut their garbage bags, threw them over their shoulders, and then disappeared around the corners. Mr. Li, a new immigrant from Fujian who jumped into the counterfeit business a few weeks ago, said to a potential buyer, "The police are here, I have to go, but if you want to buy I'll be back later." He disappeared around the corner.

Chinatown has always had illegal vendors who sell knock offs and kitsch, but in the past year the industry has grown and the vendors are offering more sophisticated counterfeit goods that are in high demand. Most of these peddlers are new immigrants from mainland China who know exactly what tourists want: Louis Vuitton, Fendi, Gucci, Ralph Lauren, Burberry, and Chanel. The New York Police Department is keen to this problem, and has units that are especially trained to detect counterfeit items and includes undercover police officers posing as shoppers. But none of this is likely to drive out knockoff vendors, said the store owners, street vendors, and police officers interviewed for this article.

The police have responded to the surge of knockoff merchandising with frequent pinpoint raids and sporadic regional crackdowns. This is the latest in NYPD efforts to go after street vendors in order to sanitize the city's image, a key portion of former Mayor Rudolph Giuiliani's anti crime policy and part of a longer history of New York City sweeps. For more than a century, immigrants fleeing political persecution or poverty have worked as fake louis bag street vendors, and the city government has consistently tried to clear them away. In 1938, Mayor Fiorello Henry La Guardia went afrer Jewish and other ethnic vendors by requiring of them proof of citizenship. In the 1950s, as Robert Moses' highways drove through neighborhoods in the Bronx, Queens, and Brooklyn, street culture and merchants were driven out too. In the 1980s and 90s, Mayors Ed Koch, David Dinkins and Rudy Giuliani cleared the streets in the name of residents' "quality of life." In 1997, the city council capped the number of street food vending licenses at 3,000 and replica louis vuitton other types high quality replica handbags china of merchandise at 853. Since 1993, no one has been able to apply for a permit, and today the waiting list is 25 years aaa replica designer handbags long.

The role of immigrant status also plays a significant part in these crackdowns: the Bureau of Consumer Affairs requires applicants to show proof of legal work status. However, New York labor law does not require this from anyone seeking to open a business. Sean Basinzki of Urban Justice Center comments, "I don't understand why they are replica designer handbags being asked for this sort 1:1 replica handbags of documentation, since street vendors are also small businessmen. Usually this is something that an employer requires of a person he or she is seeking to employ."

In a large scale crackdown May 2001 at Fulton Street, the NYPD used officers on horseback and helicopters that laid siege to the busiest shopping district in downtown Brooklyn. Every street vendor who worked illegally was removed from the area. Immigrant street vendors have suggested that race and cultural factors often high quality designer replica handbags wholesale play an unspoken and relevant role in the ongoing crackdowns. At a Spanish Harlem church in April, a group of female street vendors and their children gathered to find solutions to the constant ticketing and police harassment. This country is made up of immigrants like us. Yet, we are victims of discrimination and racism. After Sept. 11, the harassment increased. They don't trust us."

Ironically, distrust of immigrant street vendors has grown simultaneous to the growth of the counterfeit businesses and vendor activity since Sept. 11. There are several reasons for this. The business is accessible and often lucrative for new immigrants who speak limited English. As well, some business owners hard hit since Sept. 11 shifted their business from legal goods to counterfeits. Some businesses even welcome the vendors. A Canal Street jewelry store owner, who cheap louis vuitton bags from china uk would only identify herself as Ms. Nguyen, said that the counterfeit peddlers have brought foot traffic back to Chinatown.

"I think it's good, actually it helps us, it brings in the tourists, it attracts the business to here, and they are very open about it, the people who go buy it know they are knock offs so they attract a different clientele," she said.

Indeed, in the past few weeks street traffic and business has taken a sharp upturn thanks to the peddlers who have catered their merchandise to the desires of consumers.

"This is what the tourists want so we give it to them," said Mr. Li, a Fujianese immigrant who emerged 15 minutes later when the cop car had disappeared.

What is Esther Cruz's steal, and Mr. Li's means of living, is now the NYPD's headache. Officer Reilly, a blonde cop with a beer belly, emerged on the corner of Canal and Broadway, standing adjacent to a stall selling fake Louis Vuitton scarves and watches, and of all other oddities, turtles the size of Oreo cookies. Reilly said he did not arrest them because he was technically working for the fifth precinct on this day, and the illegal vendors were operating in the first precinct. Instead of arresting knockoff vendors one by one, police will whiz by on vans and conduct a fast round of mass arrests. Since February they have closed down at least 30 stores, but Reilly said that it was useless.

"We handcuff them, arrest them, we take away their stuff, they spend a night in jail, and they are out there the next day again," Reilly said. "We'll go in one corner and then to another corner, and then they'll be at another corner. There's a bunch of us but there's a bunch of them cheap louis vuitton bags from china too."

Residents have complained that the counterfeit peddlers clog up sidewalks, block subway and storefront entrances, cause noise pollution, and trigger turf wars between legal vendors and legal businesses, other police officers said. "Get out of here!" Patel demanded as he shooed the woman who was peddling pirated DVDs away. The woman refused to replica louis vuitton budge and tried to slug Patel as she screamed expletives. Patel blamed his bad luck on the Louis Vuittons. "Before they only sold watches, now they are selling handbags like the Louis Vuittons and Guccis, it's more of a craze now," Patel said, adding that he and his partners pay $15,000 (check this number) a month for rent while the illegal peddlers pay nothing. "These people just stand out on the corner, they make a mess, they don't pay any rent, and we get fined for it and lose money because of it.".