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‘We have plummeted.’ Main Street business owners worry about ongoing construction.

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‘We have plummeted.’ Main Street business owners worry about ongoing construction.

Jason Robinson answered a question about how the construction on Burlington’s Main Street has affected his business by gesturing toward the sales floor of his photography store.

“Can you look and tell me if there’s any business going on here right now?” Robinson asked. “There’s no business. We have plummeted. We have nine people on payroll, and the coffers are getting low.”

LeZot Camera has been in business since 1978, occupying a second-story space on Church Street for many years before moving to a higher visibility location on Main Street seven years ago. Robinson said he took over ownership of the business “a few decades ago.”

Main Street has been closed for much of the year as a revitalization plan called the Great Streets Main Street project got underway in February. The makeover plans include wider sidewalks, a tree belt, protected bike lanes, parallel parking, public art and seating, and perhaps most disruptive, a new sewer system and improved stormwater management that requires digging deep underground. Excavators line the street with their powerful digging arms arched over craters holding new sewer lines.

“We all know that no one can get here,” Robinson said. “Not only that, but we have things shaking off the shelves. I’ve got very expensive machines and they’re pounding the hell out of the ground. I’ve got gear falling off the shelf. Luckily, we fix cameras.”

Burlington’s business community is the “cornerstone of what makes this City great,” Chapin Spencer, director of the Department of Public Works, said in a statement emailed to the Burlington Free Press.

“When we embarked upon this multi-year investment in the heart of our downtown, we knew construction could be difficult, but that the City would emerge far stronger on the other side,” Spencer continued. “That is why we have worked from the start on marketing, parking promotions, signage and regular communication with the community.”

Construction project adds ‘insult to injury’ for a downtown already besieged with problems

Things were not great to begin with downtown, Robinson said, with the well-publicized problems Burlington has with crime, drug use and vagrancy. In his view, closing down Main Street for the Great Streets project added “insult to this injury.”

“Which I think a lot of us said in the very beginning before they started this project, and they decided against that,” he said.

Naomi Meehan, an employee at Muddy Waters Cafe, a longtime coffee shop on Main Street, said she is reminded of businesses in Winooski that went under “because of how dug up and awful their area is.”

“There’s no effort by the city to try and bolster business,” Meehan said. “There’s like a sign, maybe a social media campaign every once in a while, but there’s not really a major effort to address how this is affecting businesses.”

Burlington tries to improve parking rates and options ahead of December

Spencer said Public Works has heard “thoughtful and passionate feedback from local businesses and from City Council about the next intersection closure at Winooski Avenue and Main Street,” and that his team is continuing to explore schedule adjustments and “additional impact mitigation.”

Public Works is in “active conversation” with the Main Street contractor, S.D. Ireland, about the holiday season, according to Spencer, who said he has put a number of “holiday promotions and construction mitigation efforts” in place:

  • Parking meters in the core will be rolled back to 99 cents per hour between Thanksgiving and New Year’s Day.
  • The city has 85 parking spots in the Courthouse Plaza Garage for $1.50 per hour. They are operating these at a discount to drivers compared to the privately rate of $5 per hour.
  • The Department of Public Works is working with the city’s Business and Workforce Development department to continue a downtown promotional campaign.

“As always, we ask the public to visit greatstreetsbtv.com, sign up for the weekly update and sign up for VT-Alert for major updates,” Spencer said.

What else is needed to improve shopping in downtown Burlington

Pat Miller, owner of North Star Sports, has been doing business in downtown Burlington for almost 40 years. She too, has seen a drop in business because of the construction. Miller said she relies on customers coming from surrounding communities because there simply isn’t enough business in Burlington to sustain her shop.

“Given the downtown atmosphere, coupled with repairs, it hasn’t become an inviting place for people in the surrounding communities to be here,” Miller said. “Burlington’s changed, everyone knows that. We’re just hoping to see it move forward and continue to change, but in a more positive way.”

While she supports the infrastructure upgrades and beautification work the Main Street project will bring, Miller said she has always been opposed to the switch to parallel parking, which she said will reduce the amount of parking on Main Street by up to 60%, directly affecting her bicycle repair business. She said she brought the issue up over years of meetings about the project, to no avail.

“In our business, people aren’t going to walk with a broken-down ebike,” Miller said. “You can’t carry that bike, or any bike. Parking nearby is a very crucial thing for our business.”

Contact Dan D’Ambrosio at 660-1841 or ddambrosio@freepressmedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @DanDambrosioVT.

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