DORI MONSON

University Way businesses struggle with construction, some say city has been no help

Sep 17, 2018, 5:44 AM | Updated: 10:41 am

Construction has torn up University Way this summer, taking parking spaces and forcing many small businesses to put out "Businesses are open" signs just to let customers know their doors are still open. (Nicole Jennings/MyNorthwest) Construction has torn up University Way this summer, with piles of debris in front of small businesses. (Nicole Jennings/MyNorthwest) Construction has torn up University Way this summer, taking parking spaces and forcing many small businesses to put out "Businesses are open" signs just to let customers know their doors are still open. (Nicole Jennings/MyNorthwest) Some businesses have complained of a bulldozer parked in front of their door. (Nicole Jennings/MyNorthwest) Construction has torn up University Way this summer, taking parking spaces and forcing many small businesses to put out "Businesses are open" signs just to let customers know their doors are still open. (Nicole Jennings/MyNorthwest)

The strip of University Way Northeast between 50th Street and Ravenna Boulevard is akin to a scene from a dystopian movie. Dust fills the air and piles of rubble line can be seen at various points along the street. Drivers wind through a maze created by orange traffic cones. “No parking” and “Businesses are open” sandwich boards line the empty sidewalks.

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This is the picture of the construction project encompassing this segment of University Way and Cowen Place Northeast. According to the City of Seattle’s website, the project repaves and re-stripes the street, adds pedestrian crossing improvements such as all-way stop signs and marked crosswalks, improves drainage, upgrades curb ramps and sidewalk corners, and widens University Way’s southbound bike lane.

“We identified University Way NE / Cowen Place NE as a street that needs to be in better condition to continue handling both the residential and commercial needs of the community it serves,” Seattle Department of Transportation community engagement liaison Dawn Schellenberg said in an email.

“Transportation construction is necessary to keep our streets and sidewalks operating well,” he said.

Kara MacDonald, manager of University Way’s Herkimer Coffee, pointed out that at a nearby school, drivers have nearly hit children due to inadequately marked crosswalks.

“All of that kind of stuff needed to get done,” she said. “We need better sidewalks, we need better crosswalks, we need better signage.”

University Way business

The project site estimates that paving work will last for four to five months from its July beginning, putting a potential end date as late as November or December. According to Schellenberg, the paving portion should be completed in early October.

“The street is getting a lot nicer — I think it really needed a lot of the stuff that they’re doing,” observed Josephine Forney, manager at Pizza Pi Vegan Pizzeria, also on University Way.

She did note that the noise and the dust right outside the door have been a bit frustrating, though she does not believe they have impacted sales.

For other businesses on University Way, however, the paving project has created a summer of nightmares.

For Jong Chan Cho, owner of Village Sushi, every day brings another unpleasant surprise. The digging has caused a rat problem along the street, he said. Construction workers put a Honey Bucket in front of his business. Worst of all, he is losing regular customers because they are not able to find parking.

“People cannot park, so there have been a lot of problems,” Cho said. “And so much dust — in Seattle, we don’t have air conditioning, and I can’t even open the window.”

Aron Tarbuck, who has owned The Dreaming Comics and Games since 2001, is concerned because he has lost the diagonal, back-in parking spaces outside his business, a vital part of attracting customers, he said.

Ashton Gearhart, manager of Vegan Haven grocery store, has the same concern about the parking spaces outside his business. The start of the fall semester at the University of Washington would normally bring students to his doors, but without parking spaces, he can’t see the shop looking as inviting.

“They took away all of our parking [this summer] … that’ll kill business,” he said.

At Shawarma King, regular customers have been scared away because they can’t find parking. To make matters worse, said employee Mohammad Rashad, people think that the business, sometimes blocked by a pile of debris, is closed.

“They ask if we’re open,” Rashad said. “It’s very slow.”

Schellenberg said that on-street parking will be restored after paving finishes up next month.

Construction and business

It’s not the first time Seattle small businesses have run up against road work. Shops along 23rd Avenue through the city’s Central District faced setbacks as the street was tore up for similar work in 2016. This disrupted customer traffic and parking. Businesses suffered and complained to the city.

Then Mayor Murray developed a program to provide funds to affected businesses at that time. The proposal set up a $650,000 fund for small businesses on 23rd Avenue to mitigate the effects of the construction overhaul that impacted car and pedestrian traffic.

Echoes of that road work still linger along the 23rd Avenue corridor.

City communication

Schellenberg said that — keeping in mind the disruption and noise caused by months of construction — the city has actively reached out to keep the small businesses informed and offer them help and resources.

“We try to reduce impacts by notifying people early, so they can plan accordingly and to understand access needs; by sharing updates regularly throughout the construction period; identifying customer parking, loading and travel options in advance; and partnering to offer business support services and business open signs,” she said.

These support services included “free small business consulting and access to financing resources, networks and data” from the city’s Office of Economic Development, as well as information via email on where customers can park, and traffic control on farmers market days.

However, according to some of the small businesses, the city could have done more.

Cho said that the city did not even inform the businesses of many details of the construction — including an estimated end-date — until after it began. Now he gets email updates, but these are little more than form letters, he said. Cho has little hope that he will get any personal outreach from the city.

“The city council doesn’t really care about small businesses — so I imagine they can get away with a lot,” he said.

Tarbuck, too, said that the only warning the businesses received beforehand was a vague notification that some sort of construction would be taking place — but nothing giving the idea that the entire street would be torn up for months.

“There was no real clarity of how extensive it would be,” he said.

The only reason that they are even getting the form letter-type emails now, he said, is because business owners along the street have stepped up and complained to the city.

Some businesses reported that a city representative has come around with a basic fact sheet about the project, but that this was the extent of the outreach.

“Every time I ask questions, he hasn’t known specifics,” Gearhart said.

People he has gotten feedback from are bicyclists, who have said that they don’t feel any safer with wider bike lanes.

“All of our sidewalks were fine before they did this, so I don’t know what the real purpose is,” Gearhart said.

However, Kara MacDonald, manager of Herkimer Coffee, had a very different experience. She said that the city has been hospitable whenever she has asked questions — but that it’s all about doing the outreach yourself.

“As a business owner, you have to be proactive and you have to do some research and some outreach,” she said. “A few businesses on this block have been fighting the parking issue for the last four or five years. When we get angry, people start to listen.”

MacDonald said that she was able to get “businesses are open” signs for the sidewalk, as well as permission to use the parking spaces across the street on weekends when construction is not happening. She pointed out that it is the Seattle City Council that “decides these things without asking, and then the community outreach people have to deal with that,” but that the outreach workers are “actually really willing if you call and you’re nice and trying to work with them.”

“If people aren’t proactive and get involved, they’re not going to be that great to work with,” she said. “I’m not saying it hasn’t been frustrating, and I’m not saying it hasn’t been aggravating, and I’m not saying it hasn’t affected us — but it’s all how you look at it … It’s about communicating and being proactive in a positive way.”

Concerns with keeping up

With the entire street a mess, and no clear end in sight, the business owners fear for the days ahead. The start of the fall semester at UW would normally be a busy time, but with parking spaces gone, traffic cones turning the street into a maze, and dust everywhere, they are hoping just to stay afloat.

“I can’t see anybody coming up here — it’s awful to walk through,” Gearhart said.

Due to the loss of business, Tarbuck had to let an employee go. Now he works all day himself, every day at the shop, with just one day off per week — and on that day, he has been forced to close the doors.

“It’s been quite a bit rough,” he said.

Cho observed that a bike shop across the street from his restaurant had to close because of the construction. He is worried for his own eatery if this goes on longer.

“I pay so much in taxes, I cannot afford to keep up,” Cho said.

Tarbuck is thankful that his and other landlords on the street have given businesses a break with rent during the construction months, but he hopes to see some financial support from the public sector as well.

“There are great breaks given to larger business — any little difference, just the thought that we, too, matter to the city, that mom-n-pop shops are still part of the new Seattle,” Tarbuck said.

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