Healdsburg business owner Lucia Azevedo Fincher made this statement to the Healdsburg City Council on Monday night:
This Saturday, Nov. 25 is Small Business Saturday, and I hope everyone will to come downtown to support your small business community. We need your support now more than ever. Shop, dine, sip, buy gift certificates. Not just on Saturday, but all winter long. Healdsburg businesses are hurting, some more than others, and some as a direct result of decisions made in this room.
You may have seen the recent Facebook post on the What’s Happening Healdsburg site poking fun about a new nickname for the roundabout. The community is frustrated and this is a way to let off steam, but I, for one, have lost my sense of humor on this topic. I didn’t read all the comments, there were just too many, but one that resonated with me was “circle of broken dreams.” As a first-generation American, Café Lucia not only represents my dream, but it represents the American dream for my family – one that has become threatened.
Café Lucia and many other small businesses in downtown are not merely statistics. Small businesses are the economic engine and heart and soul of our town. We provide a service to our community, and give back to our community as much as we can, but our biggest contribution is that we provide jobs. All we want is to keep our doors open and our employees employed.
We are real people with real challenges trying to make the best decisions to get through these challenges. Looking back to when we opened five years ago, we certainly didn’t foresee the challenges that we are facing today and that they would stem from decisions made by our city. More specifically, the city approved two major construction projects (the roundabout and H3 hotel) that broke ground at the same time, both started 17 months ago, both are delayed and won’t be finished until next year.
These projects should never have been permitted to take place at the same time in one concentrated area. This decision gave little or no thought to the impact on the small businesses in the area. Two businesses have already closed on our block. Our business has lost income as a result and we have been forced to change our business plan this winter from operating seven days a week to five days a week, which impacts our employees and their families.
How is our city going to support the remaining businesses impacted by construction so that they can come out the other side and reap the rewards that are being promised? Keep in mind some of these business will experience a recovery period long after construction is complete and before reaping any rewards.
Will the city finally give the business owners proper information about how to file a claim and the process for such a claim? Will the city expedite the processing and payment of claims so that businesses can continue with their operations?
As a small business owner and a Healdsburg resident for over 23 years, I am really concerned about the level of apathy towards small business. Small owner-occupied businesses are the fabric of our town. If we are going to preserve Healdsburg’s small town charm, the goals of the city, the chamber and community should run parallel so that Healdsburg can have a healthy business economy. The city should properly oversee the chamber and the chamber should work as a conduit between the businesses and the community.
Decisions made in this room have a ripple effect. Our city leaders can’t control Mother Nature or national disasters, but can, and should, make solid, informed decisions and have a plan in place at all times to mitigate impacts of those decisions. What is the plan?
Lucia Azevedo Fincher is the owner of Café Lucia.
