Working the street: distrust of immigrant street vendors is rising even as New York Chinatown's counterfeit business grows.(report)

At 9:15 a.m., Canal Street only begins to wake. 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. At 10:45 a.m. 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. ...