\n\t\t\t\t\t\tConstruction is underway in south Sacramento as part of the Franklin Boulevard Complete Street Project, which aims to improve safety for pedestrians, bicyclists and drivers through upgrades like wider sidewalks, new lighting, medians, and bike lanes. The project has been in planning stages for nearly seven years and under construction for about a year.Cyclist Steve Donelson said the medians are a good idea to keep people mindful of bikers. “It was a good idea from the start, but like I said, there’s a few sections where it gets kind of dangerous, where the cars have to cross paths with the bikers, and a lot of times, I actually almost have been hit three times since the project started,” Donelson said. The area, which stretches from 12th Avenue to Fruitridge Road, is known for its vibrant Hispanic community and businesses. For business owners like Fernando Virrueta at Disco Azteca, the commuter bypass near Highway 99 has always brought new customers, describing the neighborhood as a place where “you can find just about anything.” However, with new construction, some business owners are concerned about the impact of the changes. Virrueta said he was surprised by the emphasis on bike lanes. “I was very surprised they did so much for bikers, which is something that we don’t normally, we don’t have customers shopping on a bicycle or a lot of walkers, mainly it’s drivers, so I’m surprised they put so much effort into the bike lane… they should have done it for parking instead of bikers,” Virrueta said. Businesses like Disco Azteca and World Class Textiles have reported a drop in sales, citing reduced parking as a major issue. “A lot of the customers are fighting for the parking. They ask us, ‘where can we park?’ and it’s not looking too good, especially on the weekends when it’s like busy hours, rush hours,” said Anam Shafique of World Class Textiles. Shafique added that the street in front of their family business once served as parking spaces for customers, but that’s now been replaced by bike lanes. “We could’ve easily parked three cars across the shop, but now it’s like no more because it’s a bike lane and Franklin Boulevard is not like pedestrian friendly \u2013 if anything, it’s more so, cars,” Shafique said. The city has acknowledged these concerns, calling the impacts temporary and stating that access to businesses has been maintained. Officials have promised to continue working with the community as construction progresses. Shafique expressed frustration with the changes. “It makes it look pretty, but at the end of the day, it’s affecting a lot of businesses and you know, put your money towards what it needs to be put towards \u2013 better things,” Shafique said. Despite the challenges, Virrueta remains optimistic about the project’s potential benefits. “Definitely gives it a more up-to-date look, a nicer place, maybe more people are not so scared to come around,” Virrueta said.The project is expected to be completed later this year.The Franklin Boulevard District Association which led the project, did not respond to requests for comment regarding business concerns.See more coverage of top California stories here | Download our app | Subscribe to our morning newsletter | Find us on YouTube here and subscribe to our channel\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\tSACRAMENTO, Calif. \u2014 \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
Construction is underway in south Sacramento as part of the Franklin Boulevard Complete Street Project<\/a>, which aims to improve safety for pedestrians, bicyclists and drivers through upgrades like wider sidewalks, new lighting, medians, and bike lanes. <\/p>\n The project has been in planning stages for nearly seven years and under construction for about a year.<\/p>\n Cyclist Steve Donelson said the medians are a good idea to keep people mindful of bikers. <\/p>\n “It was a good idea from the start, but like I said, there’s a few sections where it gets kind of dangerous, where the cars have to cross paths with the bikers, and a lot of times, I actually almost have been hit three times since the project started,” Donelson said. <\/p>\n The area, which stretches from 12th Avenue to Fruitridge Road, is known for its vibrant Hispanic community and businesses. For business owners like Fernando Virrueta at Disco Azteca, the commuter bypass near Highway 99 has always brought new customers, describing the neighborhood as a place where “you can find just about anything.” <\/p>\n However, with new construction, some business owners are concerned about the impact of the changes. Virrueta said he was surprised by the emphasis on bike lanes. <\/p>\n “I was very surprised they did so much for bikers, which is something that we don’t normally, we don’t have customers shopping on a bicycle or a lot of walkers, mainly it’s drivers, so I’m surprised they put so much effort into the bike lane… they should have done it for parking instead of bikers,” Virrueta said. <\/p>\n Businesses like Disco Azteca and World Class Textiles have reported a drop in sales, citing reduced parking as a major issue. <\/p>\n “A lot of the customers are fighting for the parking. They ask us, ‘where can we park?’ and it’s not looking too good, especially on the weekends when it’s like busy hours, rush hours,” said Anam Shafique of World Class Textiles. <\/p>\n Shafique added that the street in front of their family business once served as parking spaces for customers, but that’s now been replaced by bike lanes. <\/p>\n “We could’ve easily parked three cars across the shop, but now it’s like no more because it’s a bike lane and Franklin Boulevard is not like pedestrian friendly \u2013 if anything, it’s more so, cars,” Shafique said. <\/p>\n The city has acknowledged these concerns, calling the impacts temporary and stating that access to businesses has been maintained. Officials have promised to continue working with the community as construction progresses. <\/p>\n Shafique expressed frustration with the changes. <\/p>\n “It makes it look pretty, but at the end of the day, it’s affecting a lot of businesses and you know, put your money towards what it needs to be put towards \u2013 better things,” Shafique said. <\/p>\n Despite the challenges, Virrueta remains optimistic about the project’s potential benefits. <\/p>\n “Definitely gives it a more up-to-date look, a nicer place, maybe more people are not so scared to come around,” Virrueta said.<\/p>\n The project is expected to be completed later this year.<\/p>\n The Franklin Boulevard District Association<\/a> which led the project, did not respond to requests for comment regarding business concerns.<\/p>\n See more coverage of top California stories here<\/a> | Download our app<\/a> | Subscribe to our morning newsletter<\/a> | Find us on YouTube here and subscribe to our channel<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Construction is underway in south Sacramento as part of the Franklin Boulevard Complete Street Project, which aims to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":273395,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[118493,91550,39172,387,4019,118497,118494,58103,118496,1741,22322,2426,118495,1506,121,123,122,6508,72],"class_list":{"0":"post-273394","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sacramento","8":"tag-anam-shafique","9":"tag-bike-lane","10":"tag-biker","11":"tag-business","12":"tag-construction","13":"tag-disco-azteca","14":"tag-fernando-virrueta","15":"tag-franklin-boulevard","16":"tag-franklin-boulevard-construction-project","17":"tag-lot","18":"tag-new-customer","19":"tag-parking","20":"tag-parking-concern","21":"tag-project","22":"tag-sacramento","23":"tag-sacramento-headlines","24":"tag-sacramento-news","25":"tag-south-sacramento","26":"tag-year"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/273394","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=273394"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/273394\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/273395"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=273394"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=273394"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=273394"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}