Despite partial Murray Street Bridge reopening, businesses continue to hurt

A flyer hangs in the window of Star Zone Smoke Shop asking customers to sign a petition pleading with the City of Santa Cruz to allow two-way traffic on the Murray Street Bridge. 

“We’re hurting” after the seven-month closure, said Justin Wood, a manager at the smoke shop on Seabright Avenue. 

Wood said he hasn’t seen more customers in his shop since the city partially reopened the eastbound lane of the bridge last week. Wood told Lookout that the business is still reeling nearly a year after construction first began and with two more years to go for the seismic retrofitting project. 

“I still feel like people are gonna avoid this as much as they can,” Wood said. “But just due to traffic, everybody kind of got used to going through town.”

Just over 1,300 people had signed the petition as of early Thursday. The city has said it will make a decision within weeks about whether to use temporary traffic signals to allow alternating traffic flow in both directions in the one open lane. 

Wood said two-way traffic on the bridge would help the business; some customers told him the shop is too far out of the way to get to with the bridge closed. 

“I get it,” Wood said. “Going through town is not easy. I live on that side, so having to go back and forth through the traffic is just, it’s rough. Traffic is terrible through town.”

Aaron King, owner of Pet Shop Santa Cruz, next door on Seabright Avenue, also said he hasn’t seen a difference in his business since the eastbound lane reopened. King said the business’ sales have dropped with the construction. The shop specializes in reptiles and fish and also sells dog and cat products. Many of his customers stop by to quickly “grab some crickets or grab a mouse.” 

He said making the parking meters in front of his shop free to help those customers was a good effort on the part of the city. But, he said, the unintended result is that the spots have become beach parking. 

“People just stay here all day long, and there’s nowhere for my customers to park,” he said.

When asked about the city’s relief plans, which include small business loans, King said: “We’re already in debt from this? Why would we want to go into more debt?”

“We’re gonna try to fight it through,” he said. 

In September, a customer started a GoFundMe campaign for the pet shop, which King said has “helped a little bit.” In five months, the campaign has raised a little over $1,000. 

“All of the businesses around here are suffering,” he said. “We’re hanging on by a thread.”

On the east side of the bridge, the owner of H&H Fresh Fish Co. said having the bridge open one-way “is like a breath of fresh air.” Hans Haveman said his business in the Santa Cruz Harbor has been busy the past week, but he attributes some of that to the warm weather and the excitement over local Dungeness crab for sale.

“We’ve definitely seen a nice flow of people,” he said. “So hopefully that’s the reason. We shall see.”

The bridge being closed has affected the business, Haveman said, especially during already slow times.

“When it takes you an extra half-hour to get to your destination, a lot of people are just going to opt out,” he said. 

In fact, due to the lengthy duration of the project, H&H Fresh Fish will soon open a second location in the Swift Street Courtyard on Santa Cruz’s Westside. 

“I had to open up a whole ‘nother shop on the Westside to keep me afloat, because it’s just too scary” to depend on one location, not knowing how future scheduled closures might affect his bottom line, Haveman said.

He said the city did not consider the impact the bridge closure would have “on the entire city, not just our businesses.” Seabright Social closed last August, blaming the three-year construction project. 

“We’ve screamed and yelled at the city council, and there’s not much that could be done at this stage, but it was really bad foresight,” Haveman said. “We never got any kind of forewarning that it was going to be happening.”

He called the city’s marketing efforts and signage that businesses are open “window dressing.” 

Haveman said he’s aware of the city offering loans, but “there’s no direct money that I’ve seen coming in yet. You know, there’s no, like, ‘Oh, we’re gonna pay you for screwing up so bad.’”

Santa Cruz economic development manager Rebecca Unitt told Lookout that the city is offering loans up to $50,000 at a 4% interest rate through its financial partner, Grow America. She said the city was aware of two businesses pursuing loans. 

When asked if the city was exploring other financial options for businesses, Unitt said, “We are only offering the loan program at this point, and we’ve been providing other support through events and marketing and some different promotion efforts.”

Another full bridge closure is planned for June through August for crews to relocate a wastewater pipeline. Wood, at the smoke shop, said it “makes no sense” to close the bridge during peak tourist season. 

“Three years seems crazy to have a bridge closed that connects so much,” Wood said.

Michael Spadafora, owner of Java Junction Coffee Roasting, said he has seen a small uptick in traffic at his harbor location, but he also speculates that the warm, sunny weather is a factor.

“We’re lulled into a false sense of security right now,” Spadafora said, adding that the bridge should have alternating traffic. “For Seabright to see an uptick we need westbound traffic.”

Spadafora would also like to see the traffic signs about the bridge closure changed to make them clearer about what direction cars can go, rather than saying “closed westbound.” 

“I’m going to say the average person, especially tourists, that come into town don’t know what way eastbound or westbound is when it comes to Murray Street,” he said. 

Spadafora said he doesn’t want to take out a loan that’s payable over four or five years, “if we’re not going to be able to make it through next summer.”

“We make our money in the summertime to pay for the wintertime,” he said. “We weren’t able to do that last summer. For now, we are maxing out any credit we have to make it through this winter. Now we’re not going to be able to make any money next summer to make it through next winter.”

Unitt said the city recently launched a bingo-card promotion to drive traffic and spending to businesses in Seabright and the harbor. Customers can pick up a card at a participating business, and if they spent $15 at a business, they can mark it off. If they get bingo, they’ll be entered into a drawing for gift cards to the businesses. 

Unitt said she is “excited that the bridge is back open to one lane and making it a little easier for folks to get over and support those businesses.”

She added that the city’s public works department is addressing the bridge traffic signage. 

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