SAN DIEGO — The Pure Water Program aims to supply one-half of San Diego’s water needs by 2035, but to accomplish such a hefty feat, it requires years of construction. CBS 8 is learning that small businesses in the construction zones are feeling impacts to their customer base as the road work strains access to their storefronts and parking lots.
“We’re a small business, we operate on tight margins. We can’t really afford these cash flow impacts,” said Sulaiman Morgan, co-owner of Humble Bean Café. “As you can see, it’s 10:15 a.m. on a Friday and it’s pretty empty in here. We had a little bit of a rush this morning, but we’d usually have folks sitting in here this time of day.”
His coffee shop is located in a small building near Clairemont Drive and Denver Street, where construction caused traffic backups and detours for several months last year.
“As this was dug up, there were multiple lanes that were closed, this became a choke point,” said Morgan while pointing toward Clairemont Drive. “You’d have traffic backed up from the Denver Street intersection all the way up a couple of lights.”
Morgan believes all the road construction has put a dent in the shop’s bottom line, as customers found it inconvenient to navigate all the detours and backups.
“They want to come in, grab their coffee, and go back to work. But that became very difficult because of the delays, the detours, etc., due to the construction right around the corner from us,” said Morgan.
He filed a claim against the City of San Diego, requesting they make him whole for the loss in revenue, which he approximated at more than $17,000.
“Even though before the summer, we were on like a 25% growth trajectory, we had a drop of nearly 20% in those summer months in our revenues,” said Morgan.
CBS 8 reached out to the City for information on what businesses can do if they’re affected by the construction, and they sent the following response from the Public Utilities Department.
“Businesses or residents can contact us via our phone lines and email at purewatersd@sandiego.gov.
- Morena/Bay Park/Clairemont - 833-MOR-PWSD (833-667-7973)
- University City - 833-UTC-PWSD (833-882-7973)
- Scripps Ranch/Miramar - 833-MIR-PWSD (833-647-7973)
Inquiries are monitored and responded to within one business day.”
The construction phase on Clairemont Drive has moved further up the road away from Morgan’s shop and customers have been trickling back in as they try to build back their customer base.
“We’re trying to bring them back right now. Slowly they’re coming back but it’s going to take time,” said Morgan.
For more information on construction phase timelines for the Pure Water Program infrastructure along Clairemont Drive, please visit the City’s project webpage.
Watch Related: Pure Water project one step closer to completion (Dec 28, 2023)