TUCSON, Ariz. (KGUN) — Merchants along Tucson’s South 12th Avenue are feeling their businesses go down while street improvements go up along the road. Business people know the road work will make things better but in the meantime they’re working to attract customers through the congestion.
In Tucson, South 12th Avenue is one of the places you’d go for an interesting mix of restaurants and shops but lately, it’s been harder to get to those places.
Since September, the City of Tucson’s been working to make South 12th Avenue nicer looking and safer between Irvington and Drexel.
But with roadwork, there’s usually pain before you feel progress. Businesses along 12th say the construction congestion drives drivers away.
Samantha Torres says it’s cut business at the MPire Barber Lounge.
She’s trying new ways to raise the customer head count.
“Well, since social media is a big thing now, we kind of advertise ourselves on social media, trying to pull as much new clientele as we can, just make as many videos as we can within the barbershop our own, our haircuts, we do, like little scriptures, as far as, like the whole barber shop. So we just kind of maintain that way.”
Building safer sidewalks and ramps has workers scooping out dirt along South 12th, while Alejandra Torres scoops out raspados at Tropilandia. But she says since the roadwork began the workers have been scooping more than she has.
“That's been an issue for all the businesses. We've been talking to each other and discussing how it has affected us, all of us on 12th Avenue.”
She says she hopes the City of Tucson can speed up construction, and maybe finish sooner than the February completion the city’s predicting. In the meantime, businesses on 12th are meeting to share ideas on how to boost business and help each other while they adapt to the changes building up on South 12th.
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Craig Smith is a reporter for KGUN 9. With more than 40 years of reporting in cities like Tampa, Houston and Austin, Craig has covered more than 40 Space Shuttle launches and covered historic hurricanes like Katrina, Ivan, Andrew and Hugo. Share your story ideas and important issues with Craig by emailing craig.smith@kgun9.com or by connecting on Facebook and Twitter.
