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Katia Frishman tried for four years to get pregnant and finally underwent in vitro fertilization, only to miscarry after three weeks.
The 37-year-old Upper East Side woman and her husband didn’t give up, but decided to supplement their efforts with a method rarely mentioned in Western fertility clinics: Acupuncture.
A day after Mayor Bloomberg and Rolex executives hailed a raid on counterfeit designer good shops in Chinatown, enterprising vendors were back hawking bootlegged wares on Canal Street.
Peddler whispered designer names to shoppers snaking along the sidewalk, heralding bargains still to be had – even if many storefronts were indefinitely shuttered.
A vendor named Tun stopped briefly to show a laminated card with pictures of designer bags for sale, and said he’d be right back before slipping around the corner. Reappearing minutes later, he pulled a small package from his jacket and unwrapped a knockoff Louis Vuitton handbag.
A genuine bag of the same size runs $300 to $600 in city boutiques. Tun’s price: $35.
Asked why he immigrated from Vietnam to work on the streets of New York, Tun gushed, “It’s the Big Apple: very, very sweet!”
‘Counterfeit Triangle’
It was anything but sweet the day before for those peddling designer knockoffs from Chinatown storefronts. On Feb. 26, the mayor’s Special Enforcement Unit and cops from the Fifth Precinct seized about $1 million in bogus goods and closed 32 shops in what Bloomberg dubbed the “counterfeit triangle” of Canal, Baxter and Centre streets.
Targeting property owners George and Carl Terranova, police got a restraining order to keep vendors out and began a lawsuit, citing building code violations. The Terranovas, who promptly issued a statement promising to cooperate with the city, must demonstrate that new tenants will sell legitimate goods before the stores can open again, officials said.
Legit Businesses Hurting
The closure of the storefront operations didn’t stop vendors like Tun, who said his boss brings in containers of knockoff goods worth thousands to resell on the street. On a good day, Tun will make $80, from which he pays $15 daily rent for a private room.
Nearby, the Lucky Stone shop was still open, displaying water fountains and carved stone dragons, giving some life to the street amid closed graffiti-laden metal gates on neighboring stores.
Robert, the shop owner, said he was grateful that police supervisors allowed him to reopen after determining his business was legitimate. He did, however, lose a day and a half of business.
“It’s slow today, too,” he said, explaining the lack of open stores had cut foot traffic.
Sitting inside a Centre Street kiosk, the “newspaper man” as he identified himself, said complained that innocent businesspeople suffered when cops shut the entire block for the raid.
“They lose their livelihood. The little guys always suffer,” he said.
In one of the closed shops, an NYPD detective stopped packing confiscated handbags, belts and wallets to talk with two women standing on the other side of a metal barricade set up by authorities. The detective explained in Chinese that the women could have access to their grocery and bamboo shop once they return with letters of permission from various city agencies.
“No illegal!” one of the women declared. She rubbed her eyes with her fists – apparently expressing her sadness to be out of work.
Clear Consciences
Experiencing a different kind of disappointment were Sammie Jones and Patrice Eldridge who came from Texas hoping to find the same Prada bags they had picked up in Chinatown last year. Neither had any qualms with buying bogus bags.
“[The designers are] not really reimbursing the people that are making them. They’re getting made in sweatshops and it’s costing them nothing, then they’re selling them to us at 500 or 600 times a markup, so it doesn’t bother me at all to come to Chinatown and buy the knockoffs,” said Jones.
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“The trickster, the jester, there’s a long history of getting the attention of the king with the wise fool,” 38-year-old Ben Sheppard said.
He was leading the group just south of Houston Street through mid-morning traffic on Feb. 15: about half a dozen red-nosed fellow cycling enthusiasts dressed in colorful costumes, complete with curly wigs and tiny traffic cones atop their heads.
“Clowns instead of earnest politicians,” Sheppard declared enthusiastically while he waited for the light to go green again.
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A small group of union-backed protesters railed against labor and living conditions at one of the nation’s largest senior care providers’ facilities Feb. 27 on the Upper West Side.
The company, in turn, accused protest organizers of waging a publicity stunt to collect more union dues.
Standing outside Atria Senior Living on West 86th Street, between West End Avenue and Riverside Drive, eight protestors wore SEIU stickers and called for unionizing service workers at all 23 New York Atria homes.
Union Effort Stymied
Rabbi Michael Feinberg, a community activist, held up an anti-union flier Atria purportedly distributed to its workers.
“This filer says nothing about the fact that it’s their democratic right to improve their workplace situation, to improve care for residents,” Feinberg said.
Protest organizer Daniel May charged that in recent years Atria has increased rent, made medication mistakes, locked-in patients and otherwise neglected its senior population. Atria should “begin to sit down with workers and talk about how they can address providing adequate staffing, adequate training to make sure the residents get what they need,” he said.
‘Half Truths’
An Atria spokeswoman countered that the company, which provides residential services to more than 13,000 senior in 27 states, is the victim of an ongoing smear campaign by the powerful Service Employees International Union.
“The SEIU’s press release and protest are part of an ongoing corporate attack campaign to tarnish Atria’s reputation and get more members and dues money,” said Amy Risley, the spokeswoman. “The SEIU continues to lose credibility by attacking our company with distorted claims and half-truths.”
While the SEIU forces picketted, Susan MacArevey spoke about her mother’s death at an Atria care facility in Albany.
Her mother hit her head after suffering a heat attack and stumbled around, said MacArevey, who traveled from Wisconsin to attend the protest. A family member discovered the body the next day, MacArevey added.
One Woman’s Story
No one had checked on her mother that night, she said. Only one worker had been assigned to look after approximately 134 residents all night, she said.
Atria confirmed that MacArevey’s mother was a long-time resident at Atria Shaker in Albany but refused comment on her case.
Since May 2007, SEIU has continuously campaigned against Atria care facilities nationwide, including a Jan. 28 protest at one Davis, CA center over rising rent costs.
On March 4, SEIU plans a protest outside of Rockefeller Center against Lazard, Ltd., the investment firm that is affiliated with Atria’s private owners.
Linnea Covington and Daniel Macht contributed reporting
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At lunch time in the Financial District, Alvin Badall wrapped and served a veggie roti for a regular from Buffalo, a chicken roti with pepper sauce to a man from the West Indies, and a shrimp roti to an Englishman – in less then five minutes.
Despite the freezing temperatures, a line of people formed at Nio’s Trinidad Roti truck on Front St.
“It’s a fast food that has the taste of home,” said Ramin Ganeshram, author of “Sweet Hands,” a Trinidadian cookbook. “It’s cheap, it’s quick and if you like it, you can go back — you don’t have to make the investment of immersion right away.”
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At first it sounds like a typical tale of gentrification: Spanish Harlem residents battle to save a community garden from being bulldozed to make way for apartments.
But the gardeners are fighting neighbors they’ve known for decades, not outside developers. The 116th Street Block Association, a nonprofit founded by locals in 1976, plans to build 55 apartments on the garden site for families making $40,000 or less.
Madame Tussauds is introducing a whole new ball of wax: Interactive exhibits.
The famed wax museum’s Times Square branch features a statue of the late rapper Biggie Smalls where visitors can mix his hits. If you blow into Jennifer Lopez’ ear – or rather her wax double’s ear – she blushes. You can cast your virtual vote for president at the Hillary Clinton figure.
Khadijah Cole reports.
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On a warm, early October day, the Starbucks on Broadway and 81st Street is crowded. People place and wait for their orders while others sit at tables. More »
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The Center on Media, Crime & Justice and CUNY’s John Jay College of Criminal Justice hosted the Third Annual Harry F. Guggenheim Symposium on Crime in America Dec. 3-4. This year’s theme, “Crime, Justice and Politics: Looking Ahead To 2008,” brought together politicians, educators, journalists and law enforcement officials to discuss crime and crime statistics – and how they’ll play a part in the upcoming presidential elections.
For video reports on the conference, click here.
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When a W. 14th St. bar was faced with relocation, its owner had to appeal anew to neighbors that had not looked kindly on him in the past.
McKenna’s Pub was displaced from 245 W. 14th St. — which is slated for demolition — but its owner, Brian McKenna, didn’t have to look far for a new location. The bar is set to occupy a new space in 250 W. 14th St. across the street. And his neighbors, who in the past have complained about the bar’s noise and disorder, can’t be pleased.
