The Bloomberg administration yesterday announced it won an $800,000 settlement from the landlords of the “Counterfeit Triangle” — a building at Canal, Centre and Walker streets where 32 storefronts were raided two years ago — but the illicit business still thrives and draws tourists to Chinatown.
Shanai Rogers, 20, was visiting from California and expected to easily find the Louis Vuitton duffel bags she wanted yesterday. She knew Canal Street was the place for knockoffs from an episode of the MTV hit, “The City,” she said.
“I was mad at first because I didn’t know how it went,” she said. “I’m walking and then I heard some guy say, ‘bag,’”
She followed him to an alley where he reappeared with two duffels, at $220 a pop, in a garbage bag.
Mandy, 24, a Tennessee tourist who declined to give her last name, followed a Canal Street bag whisperer two blocks to a Mulberry Street store selling generic souvenirs. She was ushered into a spare storage room and then through another door into a tiny room with fake Fendis and Chanels. She bought a Jimmy Choo bag knockoff for $40.
“It looks real,” she said. “In Tennessee nobody will know the difference.”
