Glenora’s businesses in construction hell
Life in Edmonton has been referred to as eight months of winter followed by four months of road construction, but a group of Glenora business owners has had it far worse. The last three years has been the usual amount of winter for them, but nearunrelenting construction, first with the botched and endless 102 Avenue bridge construction, now with a major bike lane causing more disruption.
Before you write off the business owners as a bunch of complainers, it’s worth noting their impressive determination. As Barbara Dicurzio, co-owner of the children’s clothing boutique HSKT (Head, Shoulders, Knees & Toes) on 102 Avenue and 125 Street puts it: “You can present us with a million obstacles and we will find a way to survive. We would just like a little bit of compassion and respect through this process.”
Dicurzio and two sisters opened HSKT nine years ago.
“We picked this area because it’s beautiful and Glenora has a lot of schools in this zone,” Dicurzio says. “This proved to be a really good area for us. The business thrived.”
But first came the necessary replacement of the ancient 102 Avenue over Groat Road Bridge. Construction started July 2014, stopping all traffic on the key 102 Avenue artery. The area lost 23,000 cars driving by every day.
The bridge project took an extra year to complete because a contractor improperly braced the main beams during construction and they bent.
The result? A number of area businesses closed down.
“This was a ghost town,” Dicurzio says, adding that HSKT’s sales crashed.
The bridge finally opened in July 2016, but in spring 2017, bike lane construction led to a traffic lane on 102 Avenue being blocked off and a gorgeous elm tree in front of HSKT being chopped down. The bike lane will be carved out from the HSKT parking lot, which will mean they’ll lose at least three customer parking spots.
“It’s affected business,” Dicurzio’s sister and business partner Cynthia Zukowsky says of the construction. “All the customers coming in, they say, ‘When is it going to stop?’ ”
Zukowsky is upset with Mayor Don Iveson, a strong bike lane advocate. “I have no respect for him,” she says. “He’s never come to see how we’re doing.”
Bob Harris, who regularly drives through the area to visit his daughter in Glenora, wonders why the bike lane and bridge work could not have been co-ordinated.
“I was in the construction business and if my business ran projects as poorly as the city, we would have been out of business long ago. As a taxpayer, I am concerned that real professional management does not exist in this city operation.”
Dicurzio says she’s an avid cyclist, but no fan of bike lanes, as they’re little used. Before the city invested in them, there should have been a referendum, she says.
The referendum idea is supported by Christian Ponto, who owns the nearby Baby O’s hair salon. The bike lanes are going to take away even more parking in the area, Ponto says: “I like to be ‘pro’ on it (bike lanes), but this is going to throw a wrench into the whole area.”
In response, Iveson says that ideally the bridge and bike lane projects would have been done at the same time, but the decision to build a bike lane came after the bridge was already under construction. The bike lane did not get funding until 2014, with bridge construction already underway.
“This is a short-term construction issue,” Iveson says of the bike lane. “Whether it’s a bike lane or something else, it will pass.”
These are fair points, though Iveson might want to visit the area to mend fences.
Based on what I’m hearing from these business people and others, Edmontonians are increasingly unsettled over major new transportation schemes like LRT and bike lanes. There’s support for them so long as they work, but the NAIT LRT and the initial round of bike lanes didn’t. Indeed, both projects were fiascos.
Iveson, who is also a major booster of LRT, is an able mayor, as well as popular, as seen by a recent Mainstreet Research poll. Other than conservative leaders Brian Jean and Jason Kenney, he was found to be the most popular major politician in Alberta. But if the LRT and bike lane fiascos don’t end pronto, Iveson’s popularity just might wither.