Seaside businesses say they dip into red as Broadway Ave. construction drags

There was no party at First Impressions Party Supplies on Broadway Ave. in Seaside.

The door was open and the sign said the same, but the question is ‘How does one get in?’

“Someone this morning said … that they have been circling about seven times trying to find parking, trying to find where we are at in the back,” said store owner Suzi Rodriguez.

A road improvement project is fencing businesses in and keeping their customers out.

“I would say, you know, day-to-day at least a couple of hundred dollars a day that we are losing by nobody coming in at all,” Rodriguez said.

At this point, store owners are doing all they can to keep a sale.

“We have signs posted all around the block. We created banners so we could, you know, have people see them when they are driving by. We try to let them know we have parking in the back,” said Alex Isidro, store manager at Metro PCS.

But others are not able to keep up with this construction marathon.

“I know the pizza place has been sold because he said he just couldn’t stay open any more so somebody just swooped that one up,” Rodriguez said. “And there was the other guy down there said he was kicked out within 30 days.”

Rodriguez said she requested compensation from Seaside but was told the city has no money. The city also said there’s no fund to expedite the project.