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w at er lo oc hr on ic le .c a W at er lo o C hr on ic le | T hu rs da y, A ug us t 1, 20 19 | 6 on foot, the sidewalks, par- ticularly on the east side of the street, are narrow and very close to massive holes where infrastructure work is taking place. With the August comple- tion date soon approaching and paving taking place, business owners in that ar- ea are seeing the light at the end of the tunnel - but that doesn't mean there weren't losses during the past four months. "I've lost about half," said Dwight DaRocha, owner of Different Strokes head shop. Although there still is ac- cess around King Street, via Regina Street or Dorset Street, LaRocha said he's been told by customers that due to the construction, they don't even want to en- ter the area. "If I would have known it would be this bad, I would have moved before all of this started," said LaRocha. LaRocha, who has been in the uptown core for 13 years, said he avoided cut- ting back staff hours, de- spite the loss of revenue. "My staff has to live, so if you let staff go or cut hours of good staff, they move on." Wilma Chiang, owner of the Mr. Sub franchise across the road, described the past four months as "tough." While the decline in business was expected, Chiang said she was sur- prised at how little support businesses received from the City of Waterloo. "I just feel the city does not provide enough. They just had a small sign that said businesses are still open," said Chiang, adding that she's losing a "couple thousand dollars" every week due to construction. On Tuesday, she re- ceived a phone call from a customer asking if the shop was still open during con- struction. That phone call came from an employee at Waterloo City Hall, just down the road. Waterloo uptown Coun. Tenille Bonoguore said the construction has been a "hardship" for businesses. "Construction is always tough, particularly for small businesses. The re- gion and contractors need to ensure access is easy and safe. Currently, there are patches of sidewalk that feel very narrow. Some parts are so close to open digs that they can feel unsafe. This is a real hardship for local business. "I encourage every Wa- terloovian to do what my family did on the weekend: Come uptown, get some- thing to eat, pop into some stores and know that your fun outing is really making a difference." Tracy Van Kalsbeek, ex- ecutive director of the Up- Town Waterloo Business Improvement Area (BIA), has been doing weekly walkabouts of the construc- tion zone to ensure that cus- tomers are able to access businesses efficiently and safely. In some cases, she said, requests have been made to the contractor com- pleting the work to make sure access is maintained. The BIA has also been in contact with the businesses in the affected area, she said, providing updates on the work and any foreseen changes ahead. Back in the completed area, another business is waiting for customers to re- turn. Lori Lackenbauer, co- owner of King Street Cycles, said business has picked up since Phase I of streetscape construction, but it's not nearly at the level it was pre-construction, despite the LRT being up and run- ning. "I think during construc- tion, people change their routines and they find alter- nate routes or new coffee shops to go to," she said. "I think we're going to need to do something to help people come back uptown." Lackenbauer also noted that messaging may be a problem as well. She said customers often call ahead and ask how to get to the shop through the construc- tion, despite it being com- plete for more than six months. The uptown Waterloo ar- ea has been through four straight years of major con- struction. Starting in 2016 with LRT work, it continued into 2017 and 2018. In April, the section of King Street from Bridgeport Road to Central Street was closed. There is some light at the end of the tunnel, however. With a number of condo projects currently in the planning stages, soon, thou- sands more will at the very least live in the uptown core, but the arrival of those people is still years away. "It's trickling in, it's slow- ly getting better and better. The floodgates aren't going to open as soon as King Street is open ... the new condos and stuff that's go- ing in, the more people we have living here, the more people there will be on our streets," said Val Kalsbeek. Once King Street is re- opened, the UpTown BIA will have a special event to celebrate its opening. NEWS Continued from page 3 IT'S A WAITING GAME FOR BUSINESSES THE ISSUE: BUSINESSES IN UPTOWN WATERLOO ARE STRUGGLING THROUGH YET ANOTHER SUMMER OF CONSTRUCTION LOCAL IMPACT: THESE BUSINESSES ARE MOSTLY INDEPENDENTLY OWNED STORY BEHIND THE STORY Following up on earlier news about the road closing, reporter Adam Jackson took to the streets to see how they were faring.