The business owners face severe profit losses due to infrastructure delays worsening local traffic and hindering customer access.
SAN ANTONIO — For small business owners in Southtown, La Villita and Hemisfair, navigating South Alamo Street between Market and Cesar Chavez has been perilous for far too long.
“We’ve been dealing with these issues in Southtown for at least three years and the overall decisions of the city have been continuously messed up,” said Miles Donnelly, owner of La Frite Belgian Bistro, located along South Alamo.
At a Wednesday morning listening session, Donnelly told city staffers: “It’s absolutely ridiculous! She’s asking a simple question! And y’all have no answers!”
The problem is that unexpected old infrastructure issues below the roadway caused delays for a capital improvement project that eventually missed its December 2024 completion deadline.
“We’ve lost traffic,” Donnelly said of the continuing challenges. “We’ve lost business. We continue to lose. We must hold the city accountable to be better!”
ReRooted 210 Urban Winery on Hemisfair Boulevard has experienced similar frustrations.
Owner Jennifer Beckman said that while tourists account for part of her income stream, she depends on locals to keep the doors open.
“We’re a business that is dependent upon and ingrained in our local community,” she said. “We’ve had unending support of our locals, but we do hear it’s become so difficult to get downtown or traverse the area around Hemisfair – just getting in and out of the park – it’s making it physically difficult for people to get to us.”
Beckman said many fear the people who have been turned away by traffic issues won’t return.
“Right now, we’re watching loyal customers that are finding other places to visit in the meantime, and you can’t blame them,” Beckman said.
Having watched businesses struggle during an improvement project on the St. Mary’s strip, Beckman said they’re now facing similar challenges.
“I think everybody worries about that. We’ve seen this pattern with the city in the past,” she said. “We saw it on St. Mary’s Street. They’ve found new spots, they’ve made new favorites. They’ve created new patterns and that is a constant worry for small businesses in any neighborhood.”
Michael Shannon took over the city’s Capital Delivery Department in August. He told the two dozen or so business representatives their concerns are being heard and honored.
One contract change just approved, Shannon said, establishes a different method of traffic control moving forward.
The work plan had called for a complete closure of South Alamo Street at Cesar Chavez, but now they will use a quadrant approach so that traffic will continue to flow southbound into the area at all times.
“We can do that. We will do that,” Shannon told the group. “We will keep it open throughout the full construction of that, so we’ve made that change.”
Barry Clark has been in La Villita for 46 years with his Scent Chips business and says they have felt the pinch. But he hopes the solutions being offered will make a difference, and soon.
Clark said the customers will keep coming downtown, but they need help making it to his door.
“We have 12,000 anesthesiologists, then we have another 20,000 people for the geologist conference that’s like four days later. So, within a 15-day span, we have over 30,000 conventioneers that are high demographic customers that we need, that will give us proper revenue flow into the downtown corridor.”
Clark said wayfinding signage and the help of the downtown trolleys would be helpful.
“We need to give them a great directional pathway and different ways they can find us,” Clark said.
He said he remains hopeful.
“We know we have pain in construction right now but if we work together as a tight community we can achieve big things,” Clark said.
Shannon promised to continue listening and responding to concerns. He said city staff will continue to take input and work on wayfinding signage in the short-term to keep people – and their money – flowing into the area.