Orange County supervisor Katrina Foley and Congressman Lou Correa toured Fourth Street, the site of a new 4.15-mile streetcar project set to debut in 2025 - an undertaking that promised to bring considerable value to local businesses when completed.
However, the construction shut down sidewalks and closed parking spaces, causing small businesses in the area to lose income, with some barely avoiding going out of business altogether.
Supervisor Foley told KNX News reporter Pete Demetriou this is something that shouldn't be happening due to government-run projects.
"When we have a big transportation project, businesses get shut down. It's not their fault. The government needs to take care of that for them to get them through that period of construction so that when customers come back, they're ready and not closed," Foley said.
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In an effort to protect businesses from facing the same undue hardship in the future, Foley and others are supporting Congressman Correa's measure, the Business Uninterrupted Monetary Program Act of 2023 (BUMP Act).
The so-called BUMP Act would factor local businesses' financial losses into the overall cost of any future government infrastructure project on a national level.
"Since federal monies are usually involved in all kinds of construction, [the BUMP Act would] mandate that the locals, with our help, create a fund to mitigate the negative effects when we have construction going through areas like Fourth Street," Congressman Correa said.
Correa, Supervisor Foley, and city council members from Santa Ana say, for now, their task is to encourage shoppers to return to the area around Fourth Street and give the businesses the economic boost they need to thrive or even expand.
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