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Neighborhood news

Merchants all torn up, as is street

By ALEXANDRA ZAYAS
Published February 2, 2007

The 72-inch drainage pipe that officials say will end flooding in Ybor City cost the city $2.7-million.

Here's what it also cost: The Laughing Cat has had to lay off two employees. Creatures of Delight is losing $1,000 per week. Rock N Sports Bar & Grille has lost more than $20,000, laid off two employees and is in danger of closing.

Local business owners on 15th Street say they expected the ruckus of construction - the fences, the roadblock, the dust and the noise. They've been meeting with city officials for months.

But they didn't know the first phase would stretch from Fifth through Ninth avenues. And they say they weren't warned of its start until three days before ground broke.

Business owners walked away from a September meeting thinking crews would repair one stretch of the road at a time and then move on to the next. But city stormwater director Chuck Walter said the meeting was videotaped, and officials are doing exactly what was said at the meeting.

"We had to go in and do the first two crossings first. Then we would go months at a time and connect the two systems," Walter said.

"That was the work plan. That was presented to the public at that meeting very clearly."

Not clearly enough, said Jerry Kistler, owner of the Laughing Cat. "They didn't say they were going to rip up everything at the same time. They only told us the half-truth."

Creatures of Delight owner Thomas Kopian wrote city officials an e-mail titled "Mayor Iorio and her plot to kill Ybor City":

"Businesses were only notified on Jan. 5 that the project would commence on the following Monday," Kopian wrote.

"There was no time to question what was coming. We all feel hijacked."

Excuse the mess

The drainage project will alleviate flooding for businesses on Seventh Avenue, Walter said. The businesses bordering the construction site aren't the ones that experience flooding. "I guess it is all politics. If we were Green Iguana or Columbia Restaurant, this would not be going on," Rock N Sports owner Franja Eastling said. "We are a small business, not on Seventh Avenue, so who really cares if we close."

Walter said the pipe needs to go under 15th Street, and during drainage projects, sometimes the people who benefit least are inconvenienced most. "Nobody appreciates doing a project like this when it hasn't rained in a few months," Walter said. "This is an important project." This phase will be over in time for the Gasparilla Night Parade, he said.

Treading water

The doors to the colorful Creatures of Delight studio are usually wide open, welcoming wanderers and ensuring the occasional walk-in purchase of a rubber plush monster or frog.

But these days, doors remain shut to keep out the dust and the noise. The artists miss their observers. Kopian wants the public to know they're still open.

"We could be in an industrial complex and paying a lot less rent," Kopian said. "Just having people come in and out is a big part of the interaction."

City officials say they have stepped up their advertising campaign to tell people the businesses are still open, with e-mails, signs and broadcast messages on CTTV. They're also offering free parking to people who patronize the businesses.

Rock N Sports Bar & Grille owners say the free parking is only worth a dollar, nothing compared to what they've lost. They said that when they complained at a recent meeting about rent prices, one official told them to take out another loan.

During a recent football playoff game, they only served two tables. They thought this football season would be their busiest when the sports bar opened a year and a half ago.

"We will probably lose our homes because of this," Eastling said. "Everything we have is invested in this business."

They want you to know they'll be open on Super Bowl Sunday.

Alexandra Zayas can be reached at 813 226-2254 or azayas@sptimes.com.

Fast Facts:

Still open

These are the businesses affected by the construction on 15th Street from Fifth Avenue to Ninth Avenue in Ybor City:

The Laughing Cat, Rock N Sports Bar & Grille, Pizza Parlor, the Blue Shark, Silver Ring Cafe, Element Engineering, Height and Associates, Creatures of Delight, Flirt Nightclub, Nyce Clothing and Hillsborough Community College.

[Last modified February 1, 2007, 08:16:32]