‘Like a ghost town’: Road closures & their negative impacts on local businesses

BROADCAST TRANSCRIPT:

The Bagby Avenue and Richter Street road closures have been causing some sales issues for some Central Texas businesses.

While they didn't want to go on camera, owners of Mikes Mini Mart and Israels Stop told 25 News' Marc Monroy they've seen less foot traffic in their stores since the construction.

Right across the street is El Michocana Taqueria — Marc Monroy spoke with Alicia Martinez, the daughter of the owner.

"Sales are very very low because there are days, where it looks like a ghost town — for many people that have come to his location, they tell me they couldn't park anywhere because the restaurant looks closed due to construction," Martinez said.

The Martinez family opened their first taco stand 18 years ago and just last year they opened this restaurant — they say their business was booming until construction started.

"We try to do the best we can with what have because there are many days now where there isn't a single person in the morning or even all day," Martinez said.

Martinez says sales are down 58 percent compared to just six months ago, and have been finding ways to keep their doors open.

"Well we buy all of our supplies based on what we know sells very well and knowing that it's going to be an empty day," Martinez said.

"For example, before we used to buy about 40 pounds of meat for the day, now we're buying only 15."

25 News spoke with the cities Streets Division Manager Jim Reed over the phone.

He says the streets are taking a little longer than usual to fix up due to change from asphalt to concrete.

"It will give us a longer duration it handles turning movements more and that's probably been a little bit of a difficult process for the citizens that live in that are trying to navigate through," Reed said.