Bedbugs in Park Slope, Part VII: Can I Ever Go To A Stoop Sale Again?

Leaving aside the precarious, life threatening nature of transporting shit in the city... can I never buy used furniture again? Can I never pick up a stoop sale skirt with the innocent acquisitiveness of old? Is this the end of curb alerts and movie theaters? Used book stores? Libraries!!!???

Because I won't have it. I won't let the bedbugs beat us.

My dad had three barns and a farmhouse filled with 1000 year old moroccan doors, dozens of magic carpets, and maple dressers bought for a buck. I was borne and bred to buy used and it pains me to think I will be forced to subsist on new, cheap IKEA furniture for the rest of my days. 

But everywhere New Yorkers turn these days, the specter of bedbugs haunts us.

According to stats from 311, bedbug complaints went up almost 50% in Kings county from 2008 to 2009. Violations in the city went up 240% between 2006 and 2009. The city now has a Bedbug Advisory Board.

So what's a girl to do? Is anyplace safe? CT, upstate, Longisland?