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History of Tribeca Buildings
In the News: Watching the towers fall
Photo by Maryann Puglisi, courtesy of Liam J. Enea
FILMING THE EVENTS OF SEPTEMBER 11
The Times has a story about Thuc Doan Nguyen-Brophy, who filmed the attack on the World Trade Center from her Chinatown fire escape for 7 minutes — and then didn’t look at the tape for two decades, when she donated it to the 9/11 Museum. They digitized it and a documentary team is now making a film about the film.
RENTALS FOR $175,000 A MONTH
CNBC has a story on the sky-high luxury rental market, including an interview with a broker who has a listing for $175,000 a month in Tribeca. From CNBC: “The average price for luxury rentals — the top 10% of the market — jumped 35% over the past year, to $17,464 a month, according to the Real Deal Report. Luxury rentals are now fetching an average of $121 per square foot.”
A DIE-IN IN CITY HALL PARK
The Trib has a story about a “die-in” in City Hall Park last week, where dozens of people — including the relatives of victims from this year’s 58 fatal pedestrians accidents — lied down for five minutes in the park. From The Trib: “According to Families for Safe Street and Transportation Alternatives, the event’s co-sponsor, injuries from hit-and-run drivers rose 76% compared to this time last year, but resulting in few arrests.”
FIGHTING THE COUNTERFEIT VENDORS ON CANAL
Glitz, an investigative publication dedicated to the global luxury sector, has a story (behind a paywall) reporting that luxury brands have “stepped up their game in the war against counterfeits on New York City’s infamous thoroughfare over the past year.” They said there has been a lawsuit, private investigations, and a standoff with the new mayor.
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Interesting about the Glitz article. What’s the “standoff with the new mayor”? Our mayor wants to keep the organized crime counterfeit business (and public urination) flowing?
Marcus, sounds like you’re onto something…
I don’t have access to the article, but just wondering why the mayor would stand in the way of enforcement.
This Glitz article talks about the brands suing street vendors, which seems ridiculous. The brands should sue the mayor in his official capacity and NYC in an Article 78 lawsuit for permitting this illegal activity on City property (the sidewalks), just as they had sued private landlords in Canal Street when store tenants sold counterfeits a decade ago.
Again and again: if the police start to arrest & remand the buyers for possession of stolen/fraudulent goods, even to see the charges dismissed, the markets disappear.
I agree. Hundreds of tourist flock to canal street everyday to negotiate even cheaper prices for fake goods. Without them the sellers wouldnt be there. And uh, I mostly large groups of European and American tourists buying stuff, for the record.
Exactly. The key is repeated, consistent enforcement.
SW, You are right on. But I just noticed you said ‘arrest the buyers’. The problem is that in the USA it is not illegal to buy or possess counterfeit items.
Contrast to other countries. See France, for example, where just owning a counterfeit handbag can lead to serious fines (if the AI search is right, up to double the value of the genuine product). Just carrying a knockoff item on the street or through customs means you can get fined and items confiscated. Does anyone know how strictly that is enforced though? Counterfeits are not always easy to spot at a glance.
Also, separate note, but I’m not sure ending counterfeit selling will end the Canal Street (now spreading deeper into Chinatown, Soho, Tribeca) madness. The sellers just might transition to selling non-counterfeit stuff and the area will be as impassable as it is now. So regardless of what they are selling, there still needs to be some good determination of where they can operate, density of sellers in a given area, etc, so sidewalks are kept clear for pedestrians, wheelchairs, etc., so they don’t obstruct entrances to businesses and subways and residences, and of course the sellers have to clean up their trash. The current ever-expanding free-for-all (no matter what is sold) is the problem for those who live, work, or use the transit stations and must try to pass through daily the affected areas.
The street sellers are just trying to make a living but sometimes there are sinister forces behind the selling of counterfeit goods.
Investigations found that the sale of counterfeit goods directly funded the weapon purchases for the January 2015 Charlie Hebdo terrorist attack in Paris. They discovered that the perpetrators raised thousands of euros by trafficking fake designer sports shoes and illicit cigarettes purchased from China.
There are many levels of damage the counterfeit trade perpetuates. Including:
The counterfeit trade funds organized crime.
” an extended analysis of organized crime’s involvement in counterfeiting activities, highlighting that they are a huge source of income and amongst the preferred outlets for money laundering schemes. ”
– United Nations Report on Organized Crime
https://unicri.org/unicri-reports-counterfeiting-and-organized-crime
Counterfeit trade exploits workers and uses forced labor:
OECD Report:
https://www.oecd.org/en/blogs/2026/01/-how-counterfeit-goods-fuel-forced-labour-across-global-supply-c.html
I think a better strategy than targeting the street vendors would be launch an intensive investigation to identify the distributors up the chain who provide the counterfeit goods to those vendors. (Like street drug dealers vs their suppliers.)
If this has already been done, does anyone know why it hasn’t been effective?
There still has to be enforcement against the street vendors also. Even if they were not selling counterfeit items, and were selling something else, they and their hordes of customers have created seriously problematic obstruction of the sidewalks in the area, presumably operate without license, trash the area with litter, urinate on cars and buildings, etc. The area has become quite lawless.
But agreed that the counterfeit trade also has to be killed at source. It’s not just counterfeit handbags and watches; there are now counterfeit tech devices of all sorts (with often questionable reliability and even safety), counterfeit meds and medical devices (obviously a serious problem and danger), etc.
If in fact there’s a pipeline from counterfeit goods to terrorism, the logical investigative agency would be the FBI, or some similar entity. So why aren’t Marcus and like-minded folks here pressing the federal gov’t to step in? Oh, wait, could it be that Trump et al. are too busy re-assigning federal investigative personnel to “find” election fraud (front-page story in today’s NYT) while also denying NYS and NYC promised counterterrorism funds (also in today’s Times)?
Grateful for ICE who has been doing their part.
And in Bali, a Swiss tourist was jailed for disrespecting Hindu ritual.
Yet here in NYC, folks are permitted to ignore or violate the law.
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/08/21/travel/bali-swiss-tourist-nyepi.html