Merchants Complain of Metro Rail Disruption : Downtown: Building the subway has hurt businesses along a stretch of 7th Street. Poor lighting and bad traffic have deterred customers, retailers say.

Merchants in the heart of downtown Los Angeles are finding it difficult to get into the holiday spirit this year.

In what should be their busiest season, the shopkeepers instead are coping with a decline in customers and an increase in vandalism, and they blame the Southern California Rapid Transit District.

Metro Rail subway construction has snarled traffic in a two-block section of 7th Street, between Figueroa and Hope streets, disrupting pedestrian access to stores, cafes and businesses. High fences seal off the construction zones and screen the storefronts from sight. To find the shops and showrooms, shoppers must navigate narrow pedestrian alleyways that are more like tunnels and barely wide enough for two people to pass. And at night, the merchants complain, hoodlums lurk in the dimly lit passageways.

“This construction is killing our business,” said Toni Ortega, manager of See’s Candy store in the 700 block of 7th Street. In addition to fewer customers, she said, some sweet-toothed vandals--hidden by the temporary fences--broke into her shop three times in one recent week, smashing display windows and the glass front door to gain entry.

Construction of the Metro Rail and the smaller-scale Long Beach Light Rail Line has caused problems in other commercial zones. But most transportation officials agree that this stretch of 7th Street, which has endured the construction for two years now, is by far the worst trouble spot.

Downtown merchants warn that their problems might serve as a preview of what is to come to others as the massive Metro Rail is extended through some of Los Angeles’ most densely populated neighborhoods into Hollywood and the San Fernando Valley. While they acknowledge that the disruption is the price to be paid for any major construction project, the shopkeepers complain that many of the problems caused by Metro Rail could have been avoided.

Three small 7th Street businesses have folded since Metro Rail construction began. Court documents show the owner of one of the shops was $20,000 behind in his lease and was forced out of business because, he said, the construction barricades blocked customer access to him.

Rapid Transit District officials acknowledge that construction work has hampered access and created problems. But the RTD contends it is doing what it can to help merchants survive the disruptions caused by the $48-million subway station project. The job, started nearly two years ago, is scheduled to be completed in September, 1990.

“Yes, we’ve had many complaints,” said Rebecca Barrantes, RTD director of governmental affairs. The complaints fall into four categories--noise, dust, security and access, she said. “We know these have an impact on businesses. . . . We know their problems and have dealt with their individual complaints quickly.”

Throughout the country, big construction jobs like Metro Rail have been managed to mitigate the worst of the problems, said Elaine Stewart, a retail expert with the Los Angeles Central City Assn. For example, she said, work on the Portland Light Rail Line--built through the heart of that Oregon city--was shut down during the Christmas Holidays to help merchants in the construction zones.

“In Portland, Seattle and other cities, the construction managers were very sensitive to pedestrian and retail activity,” Stewart said. The RTD put up small signs at the street corners listing businesses that still operate there. But Stewart contends that the district should have done much more to ease the disruption.

Stewart made it clear that the association and the merchants in the area strongly support Metro Rail. Their complaint is that the construction managers are not sensitive enough to the retailers’ needs.

The Metro Rail underground station at 7th and Flower streets will be the largest stop on the 17-mile subway that will link downtown Los Angeles to Hollywood and the San Fernando Valley. When completed, the station also will connect with the Long Beach Light Rail Line.

Under the street, three train tunnels converge on the 80-foot deep cavern that will house the two-level station. The heart of the station, which is shaped like an X, is directly under the 7th and Flower intersection and extends more than a block in each direction. There was barely enough room between the buildings to excavate the enormous hole needed to build the station, engineers explained.

“This is a very big job in a very tight space,” said Dan Riggs, project manager for the private engineering firm that supervises construction for RTD. Heavy timbers were used to roof the cavernous pit so that traffic could still move on the streets. He said that more than half the street and sidewalk, however, is needed for work sites, material storage and equipment parking--bringing greater disruption for merchants.

“Major jobs like this have major impacts,” Riggs said. “We know we are causing problems, but we’re working hard to get along with the merchants.”

Riggs said that the contractors voluntarily agreed to widen the sidewalk space from the minimum four feet required by the city up to five and six feet to increase pedestrian access. And, when merchants complained about the dark walkways, Riggs said the RTD authorized the purchase of higher intensity light bulbs for street lighting.

On 7th Street, however, managers of Fowler Brothers--Los Angeles’ oldest book store and stationers--are not impressed.

Business is off 20% for the second year in a row and at Christmas that translates to about $50,000 for the month, according to store vice president Randall Clarke. Comparisons to the Dr. Seuss story “How the Grinch Stole Christmas” are quite appropriate, he said.

“The fact is that RTD has done nothing to help out,” Clarke said. “It’s been total neglect and we feel defeated.”

The brighter bulbs didn’t come close to solving the problem, Clarke said: “No way. It’s still dark (in the walkways), we want floods, we need light to deter the hoodlums.”

A short way up the street, the 7th Street Bistro last week was hidden from view by piles of construction materials. Patrons trying to get to the upscale restaurant for lunch or dinner were forced to follow an intricate route through a back alley off of Wilshire Boulevard to reach the front door.

“It’s a very bad situation,” said chef and owner Laurent Quenioux. He estimated that the bistro’s business was off $500,000 already this year, and the problem is worsening. He added: “They (RTD) can destroy our business.”

Other merchants complain that construction workers park cars and pickups on the job site and that huge storage containers are stacked high, blocking the view of their display windows.

Riggs, the construction consultant, said the parking and storage areas were established according to Los Angeles City Department of Transportation guidelines and permits.

City officials said they have tried to work out some kind of balance between the needs of the Metro Rail contractors and the need to keep traffic flowing. However, city officials, contradicting Riggs, said the city did not intend for these areas to be used for vehicle parking or for storage.

“This is a sore point between RTD . . . and us,” said James Okazaki, a city transportation official. When city inspectors tried to get materials moved or parking restricted, the contractors and RTD protested. “We’ve had a running battle,” Okazaki said, “and we sort of lost. It’s been difficult.”

Across the street from Fowler’s, at the big Broadway Plaza shopping mall and office complex, property manager Jon R. Bradford said the construction has the plaza hemmed in on three sides--Hope, 7th and Flower streets. Half the street and all of the sidewalk along Flower Street has been turned into a storage yard, he said.

“We’d like our sidewalks open and for them to move that storage,” Bradford said. He explained that before the RTD took over this section of Flower, it was a staging ground for construction crews building the Long Beach Light Rail tunnel into the 7th Street Station. The light rail project is managed by the Los Angeles County Transportation Commission. When the commission finished its tunnel job, the RTD took over, Bradford said.

While he was critical of the RTD’s “insensitivity,” Bradford praised the county commission, saying it had been “very responsive” to the merchants’ needs during construction of the tunnel. Unlike the RTD, he said, the commission and its contractors worked hard to minimize the impact of the construction on nearby businesses, including providing 24-hour private security guards to deter vandalism.

“We did a lot of hand-holding with the merchants,” said Robin McCarthy, the commission’s community relations director. The commission staff also staged business promotions to attract customers during the last Christmas season, she said.

The RTD wants to be more sensitive to the retailers’ problems, said district spokeswoman Barrantes. “We’re learning. We are planning to go into more mitigation on the next (construction) phase,” she said, adding, “In the future, we want to avoid problems like 7th Street.”