Construction cones outside of “Bird’s Surf Shed” on West Morena Boulevard are a sore sight for co-owner \u201cBird\u201d Huffman’s eyes.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt’s been so consistent and, uh, so bothersome,\u201d Huffman explained.<\/p>\n
Bothersome, because they’re a constant reminder of the construction in the area, like the Pure Water Project and others that have been happening in front of his business and others in the Morena-Bay Park area for the past two years.<\/p>\n
Especially maddening, some business owners say, is how the streets are blocked off, at times, cutting off access to stores.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis whole area here, all the way around the corner, had ‘no parking’ signs up for six days. And they were working across the street on that side, so nobody was ever over here,” said Huffman.<\/p>\n
Huffman says that lack of access has created a wave of missed sales for him and others.<\/p>\n
“It’s been hard for customers to find parking, find how to get in,\u201d said Anthony Gomez, manager at a neighboring home improvement store. \u201cMore than 25% of our sales have been lower than what we\u2019re expecting.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cChristmas loss of sales was kind of like the final straw,\u201d said Huffman. \u201c You know, I mean, it’s been a tough couple of years.\u201d<\/p>\n
That’s why Huffman and his son, who co-owns the shop, have filed a $25,000 loss of income claim against the city.<\/p>\n
However, Huffman says the losses they’ve suffered over the years due to the construction are so much more.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was just a statement, you know, I think, more than anything, just to kind of catch their attention,\u201d Huffman said of the claim.\u00a0 <\/p>\n
\u201cI know the problems the city can have, but I also know there’s solutions to those problems, and they just need to be brought out front for everybody’s benefit.”<\/p>\n
Stores in the Morena area aren’t alone when it comes to city construction impacting business.\u00a0A recent roundabout construction project in City Heights took longer than expected. Businesses there complained of lost revenue of up to 35%.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt’s just kind of thoughtlessness. The city needs to be a bit more compassionate, and they need to understand where retailers are coming from,” said Huffman.<\/p>\n
NBC 7 reached out to the city for comment. A spokesperson said they don\u2019t comment on pending litigation.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Construction cones outside of “Bird’s Surf Shed” on West Morena Boulevard are a sore sight for co-owner \u201cBird\u201d…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":246350,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[14767,74,76,75],"class_list":["post-246349","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-diego","tag-bay-park","tag-san-diego","tag-san-diego-headlines","tag-san-diego-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/246349","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=246349"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/246349\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/246350"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=246349"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=246349"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=246349"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}