![\"Hillsborough](\"http:\/\/www.raleighpublicrecord.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/11\/hillsborough-2.jpg\")
\nHillsborough Street construction in front of Global Village.<\/center><\/p>\n
Mike Ritchey, who owns Global Village Organic Coffee, 2428 Hillsborough St., directly across from NC State\u2019s Ricks Hall, begs to differ.<\/p>\n
\u201cI feel like I\u2019m one of the lucky ones,\u201d he said. \u201cI\u2019m only down $10,000 a month since August. Customer count is down 150 a day. But the real impact will be next summer. I use these fall and winter months to build up the war chest for then, but because of the construction, I\u2019m not going to have the bank account to make it through.\u201d<\/p>\n
Especially hard-hit were his pre-9 a.m. folks who\u2019d stop outside the shop, rush in to make a buy, then zoom off to work. That group — 33 percent of his business — disappeared when construction started and parking slots in front of his store dwindled.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd this is classic,\u201d Ritchey said. \u201cThey didn\u2019t leave enough holes in the concrete barriers to start with, then the contractor chose to relocate underground wires, shutting off our utilities, on was what is usually my busiest single day, moving day on campus in mid-August.\u201d<\/p>\n
Phil Sykes, general manager of Red Hot and Blue, at 1900 Hillsborough, near the Oberlin Road intersection, also suffered a hit that day.<\/p>\n
Sykes, who said his business has been cut in half since the city \u201cbrought out the bulldozers in August,\u201d said construction began on two new roundabouts outside his door just as students returned to classes.<\/p>\n
The timing couldn\u2019t have been worse, he said.
\n![\"Efforts](\"http:\/\/www.raleighpublicrecord.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/11\/hillsborough-1.jpg\")
\n\u201cIt\u2019s been very tough,\u201d said Sykes. \u201cWe\u2019ve barely been able to survive. If we do get guests, we don\u2019t get their repeat business because of the way it is. With the economy we had in the summer, we never were able to rebound the way we usually do when the students come back.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe were all about the project because we know what the long-term effect is. It will add value and increase the business in this part of town,\u201d he said. \u201cBut the city didn\u2019t do enough to let people know we were open.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was even threatened with a fine by the city for a 3-by-10-foot white banner we secured to the building to let people know we were open,\u201d Sykes said. \u201cAnd when I contacted WRAL-TV about a story to let people know businesses were open, the next week they did a story on how people should avoid Hillsborough Street.\u201d<\/p>\n
Keith Getchell, manager of Two Guys Pizza, 2504 Hillsborough, also has seen business drop by more than 50 percent, especially in the evenings.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s bad,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd it might have been worse, except in anticipation of this work, we put in a lunch buffet — which has been our only saving grace — added TVs in the back room and generally brightened up the place. But parking is a problem day and night and people fear construction: most tend to avoid it.\u201d<\/p>\n
That\u2019s especially true for N.C. State alums, who see Two Guys as an institution and try to visit when they return to campus, Getchell said. \u201cMost of the long-time customers are older and that makes parking even more of a problem,\u201d he said. \u201cThey don\u2019t see us as a destination anymore.\u201d<\/p>\n
Alan Lovette, who owns Melvin\u2019s Hamburgers, 2508 Hillsborough, said business owners he surveyed recently along the construction-impacted parts of the street report their business is off from at least 23 to 30 percent.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have three issues here,\u201d said Lovette, who calls Charlotte home. \u201cThe first is parking; the second is the atrocious begging situation. I\u2019ve been almost knifed and gunshot and they tried to hold me up twice to get my briefcase, and I\u2019ve only been here five years.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe third issue is that N.C. State University won\u2019t let freshmen eat over here. They force them to eat on campus their freshman year,\u201d said Lovette, who owns three other Melvin\u2019s: in Fuqua-Varina, Elizabethtown and Pembroke.<\/p>\n
\u201cThose with several restaurants will probably survive. Those who don\u2019t are really going to struggle,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Global Village\u2019s Ritchey, one of the sole-business owners, calls the city\u2019s actions \u201cthe worst kind of eminent domain.\u201d He said the city reneged on several promises it made to business owners at an April meeting before the project kicked off.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey said they were going to do three things to sustain the businesses,\u201d he said. \u201cOne was that they would only do one block at a time to minimize the effects on businesses. That hasn\u2019t happened.<\/p>\n
\u201cSecond, we were promised parallel parking on the north side of the street except for the one block where construction was going on. That hasn\u2019t happened.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd third, when we they moved to the north side of the street, we were promised that we would have five-foot sidewalks for customers. The contractor has backed out on all three of those promises,\u201d Ritchey said.<\/p>\n
To some degree, however, the speed of the construction seems to be outdating Ritchey\u2019s concerns. Tim Sudano, the city\u2019s project engineer, said recently that work along the seven-block target area is running almost two months ahead of schedule.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re about to wrap up the utility work on the south side, then they\u2019ll cross over to the north side of Hillsborough Street, if not by December, then by January, if all goes well. Then we\u2019ll take that side a block at a time. We have to tie in sewer and electric conduits to the side streets,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
One lane of parking was restored on Hillsborough\u2019s north side, in front of North Hall as far as Logan Street at the project\u2019s east end until Monday, November 23. However, red cones blocked that parking area again on Nov. 23.<\/p>\n
As for long-range parking problems, Sudano noted that the Hillsborough Street Improvement website states that the project will add more than 100 spaces to the 77 now permitted.<\/p>\n
As for Ritchey\u2019s comments on inadequate pedestrian crossing gaps in the roadside concrete barriers, Sudano said. \u201cWe\u2019ve been very quick to put in mid-block pedestrian crossings. Once we got into it with calls from him, we were popping in openings like candy.\u201d<\/p>\n
November 18 and 20 drives down Hillsborough showed the street\u2019s south side from Enterprise to Chamberlin streets completely free of concrete barriers, with three openings in existing barriers from Chamberlain to the bus stop in front of D. H. Hill Library at Gardner Street. But both barriers and openings shift as the construction focus shifts.<\/p>\n
Sudano also said the contractor can build new sidewalks on the street\u2019s north side and still keep a walking corridor open.<\/p>\n
\u201cNo matter how you try to tell people up front what will happen in a project of this size,\u201d he said, \u201cuntil it starts, I don\u2019t think the average businessperson, the average person on the street, can really realize how disruptive it can be. It has to get done and we knew some people would be inconvenienced.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"A](\"http:\/\/www.raleighpublicrecord.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/11\/hillsborough-3.jpg\")
\nA student walks along Hillsborough Street.<\/center><\/p>\n
But Ritchey, with north-side parking still eliminated and concrete barriers now in front of his shop, considers himself more than inconvenienced.<\/p>\n
\u201cSomebody will benefit from this, but it\u2019s not the merchants,\u201d he said. \u201cAll you have to do is look at the Fayetteville Street and Glendale Street projects. In both cases, they gave the developers a chance to squeeze out the little businesses.<\/p>\n
\u201cA \u2018real\u2019 city would provide compensation for the merchants,\u201d Ritchey said.<\/p>\n
Red Hot and Blue\u2019s Sykes empathizes. \u201cI\u2019m sure glad that we were the first stage, because we\u2019re through with it. On the other hand, it wasn\u2019t easy.\u201d<\/p>\n
But Sykes had nothing but praise for Lynn Craig, who manages the project for contractor Hamlett Associates Inc. \u201cThey\u2019ve communicated with us and tried to help us out in every way they can,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Craig said, \u201cWe\u2019re all in business and we know the quicker we can finish, the better. And if anybody has any constructive criticism, we\u2019d be glad to hear from them. Communication is important.\u201d<\/p>\n
And inconveniences as construction moves towards a projected summer 2010 completion might not be the only player in business downturns along the street.<\/p>\n
\u201cI visit lots of places across the state in my work,\u201d Craig said. \u201cAnd I don\u2019t think it\u2019s the construction that\u2019s affecting the businesses. I think it\u2019s the economy. The people I talk to all over say business is down 50 percent.\u201d<\/p>\n
Nevertheless, he said, \u201cIf there\u2019s anything I can do to help, let me know.\u201d<\/p>\n
Regardless of differing opinions on the construction process, all involved seemed to agree with the city\u2019s Sudano: \u201cI\u2019m just looking forward to it being complete,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Photos by Art Latham.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Business owners along Hillsborough Street across from N.C. State University report that sales are down 30 to 50 percent since construction began over the summer. Construction on the $10-million Hillsborough Street Improvement project began in mid-August and should be done by September 2010.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24020,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[42,15,23],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/theraleighcommons.org\/raleighpublicrecord\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3442"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/theraleighcommons.org\/raleighpublicrecord\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/theraleighcommons.org\/raleighpublicrecord\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theraleighcommons.org\/raleighpublicrecord\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/24020"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theraleighcommons.org\/raleighpublicrecord\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3442"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/theraleighcommons.org\/raleighpublicrecord\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3442\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/theraleighcommons.org\/raleighpublicrecord\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3442"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theraleighcommons.org\/raleighpublicrecord\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3442"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theraleighcommons.org\/raleighpublicrecord\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3442"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}