Chelsea Now photo by Jefferson Siegel

Catherine Cook, superintendent of the Bayview Correctional Facility, standing outside the prison’s front door on the corner of 20th Street and Eleventh Avenue last week.

NEWS
City agencies try to remake the Garment District
By Chris Lombardi
City officials met privately with garment-industry insiders on Monday at Parsons School of Design, soliciting feedback on new zoning proposals and, in the process, bringing to a head competing visions of the Garment District’s future that is leaving a bitter taste in the mouths of some fashion entrepreneurs.

Realbirth a haven for expectant parents
By Lawrence Lerner
On a lazy Sunday afternoon recently, nine young couples sat calmly around the perimeter of a square red-carpeted room on padded vinyl mats, leaning back against the wall with bed pillows squeezed between them or situated beneath the women’s swollen legs.

Rival doughnut stores will try to cream each other
By Julie Shapiro
On a strip of W. 14th St., the war between small, independent stores and large chains is moving to a new battleground: doughnuts. 

MTV hopefuls flock to Chelsea for a shot at fame
By Alyssa Galella
On a chilly Saturday morning at 8 a.m., about 100 young men waited in line outside Rebel, a Chelsea nightclub on 30th Street between Seventh and Eighth avenues. Some practiced their harmonies, while others shifted nervously from foot to foot. But all of them were hoping to become the next hip-hop stars on MTV’s reality show “Making the Band 4.”

Saturday night group expanding safe rides Downtown
By Brooke Edwards
Their motto is “Because getting home safely shouldn’t be a luxury.” For more than two years, the non-profit group RightRides for Women’s Safety out of Brooklyn has been giving free rides to women who feel unsafe traveling home alone.

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Arts & Entertainment
Nerd powers activate!
By Will McKinley
It’s 9:30 on a Tuesday night and Alex Zalben, Justin Tyler and Pete LePage are on stage at The Peoples Improv Theater wearing brightly colored “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles” bandanas around their eyes — just another night at the office for the co-hosts of “Comic Book Club,” a live talk show dedicated to the things that most guys lose interest in when they discover the opposite sex.

Art à la mode
By Stephanie Murg
The white jacket is propped primly on a pedestal. It is cropped and impossibly elegant, with buckle closures and a collar playfully rimmed in a band of red. And what adorns the bodice? Is that chinchilla? One has to get pretty close to this pristine piece of outerwear to discern that it hails not from a Lacroix runway but from Bellevue Hospital. It’s a straitjacket.