Decades ago in San Francisco, Market Street businesses experienced interruptions due to the construction of BART.
Today, some businesses are bracing for more changes as Market Street as officials try to remake the busy boulevard.
The first leg of the project begins this week, with a portion of downtown Market Street going car-free.
Small business owners and city leaders are hoping this change won't be like what happened during the BART project 50 years ago.
Jay Avner and his brother, Mark, still run an Electronics Plus parts and accessories store in San Rafael. But his father shut down the original location on Market Street between 8th and 9th streets as the creation of BART interfered with the family business for years.
“You couldn’t even park in front of the store, it was terrible,” Avner said. “You had to find some other place and walk three blocks.”
Besides banning private cars from much of Market Street, there will also be an eventual revitalization of sidewalks and street pavement between 5th and 8th streets.
“It’s going to be about two years (to reconstruct) in that area,” said San Francisco Public Works project manager Christina Olea. “But we’re looking at (if we) can construct the north side first, and then move to the south side, so that only one side of Market Street is impacted at a time.”
Olea also said that business owners will be offered short-term, low-interest loans through the city’s municipal transit agency, to make it easier to stay open along the popular street.
“They really are the life of Market Street,” Olea said. “We have so many businesses up and down the corridor. We want to make sure that we’re supporting them as much as we can, and we certainly don’t want to see anyone go out of business because of our project.”
Tom Kim owns Local Diner on Market between 8th and 9th streets. Kim said that despite the creation of new offices nearby, his business has become slow.
“Us small merchants, we’re expecting more business,” Kim said. “What happened was, Twitter is providing free meals to their own employees, so in a way we’ve lost business.”