The Shrinking and Fading Garment Center. The fabled heart of the city's largest manufacturing industry continues to shrink, buffeted by cheap labor overseas, rising rents and an exodus of skilled workers. By By JOSEPH BERGER. [The New York Times > Home Page]

"What will be lost if the Garment Center fades is not just another storied neighborhood like Tin Pan Alley, but the patch of Manhattan where generations of immigrants - Chinese, Mexicans and South Americans being the latest - have found the low-skill jobs they need to establish a foothold in a new land. "