By Suzanne Ma
DNAinfo Reporter/Producer
CHINATOWN — One week after police raided a strip of stalls selling counterfeit goods on one side of Canal Street, sales of illegal handbags, watches and wallets continued — right across the street.
Steps away from the shuttered storefronts between Broadway and West Broadway, shoppers milled about on the north side of Canal Street, clutching black plastic bags filled with recently purchased high-end knock-offs.
And on the corners of Lafayette and Centre streets and Broadway in Chinatown, women clutching laminated brochures showcasing a wide range of designs, whispered: "Gucci, Gucci, Prada, Prada. Watches, watches, you wanna? No here, follow me."
The raids, which shut down 31 stalls in 10 buildings, were executed by the mayor's office of special enforcement, created in 2006 to crack down on counterfeit sales.
No arrests were made, but 10 Canal Street landlords were slapped with $100,000 fines each,for allowing the sale of counterfeit goods on their premises, and for fire code and building violations.
"We have been after this pernicious and hard-to-stamp-out activity for years, and it is hard work. That doesn't mean we stop trying," mayoral spokesman Jason Post told DNAinfo.
"We learned long ago that when you arrest the vendors, new ones soon pop up to take their place. When you padlock the shops and hit the landlords with big fines the activity stops for a longer period of time."
Some Chinatown business owners and community members applauded the crack down, but others say the raids have hurt the local economy in the midst of a bad recession and the holiday shopping season.
"When you have empty blocks, that's less foot traffic on Canal Street," said Christina Seid, co-owner of the Chinatown Ice Cream Factory on Bayard Street. "This economy has been bad for Chinatown and this isn't helping. When these shops go out, it's not just a raid on a few stores, you're closing down a whole block of business."
In court documents obtained by DNAinfo, the city issued summonses to 10 landlords on Canal Street, citing high crime, public disturbances and fire code violations.
"The block as a whole has become the location of a witches brew of public nuisances," the documents read. "The core of the problem is the illegal trafficking in counterfeit trademarked merchandise, both inside the stores in the buildings along the block, and by illegal peddlers on the public sidewalk along the block."
Edward Ip runs an IT consulting company in Lower Manhattan and thought the raids were a positive step to "clean up" Chinatown.
"The sale of counterfeits gives the community a bad reputation," he told DNAinfo. "There's this idea that 'if you bought it on Canal Street, it must be a fake.' I think that mentality and that stigma is really hard to get rid of until we get it all cleaned up."
But one landlord on Canal Street, who was issued a summons and fined $100,000, said the city was trying to push out local businesses in favor of big box stores.
"They are holding us responsible for the ill-wills of the street," said the man, who spoke on condition of anonymity. "The city wants to milk the landlords for all we have. They want Canal Street to become a cookie cutter, like the rest of Manhattan. They don't want no more flavor."
