Monroe Street Blues Repaving Project Slows Business To A Crawl At Small Shops On Arterial

‘Please Hurry,” pleads the sign at Golden Rule Brake Service.

It’s not aimed at drivers of brake-deficient cars but at the crews digging, scraping, pounding and - please, God, soon - repaving a four-block stretch of Monroe Street.

Work on the $750,000 project, which started in early August and should be done by mid-October, has closed the arterial that feeds customers into the auto shop and its neighbors just north of the Monroe Street Bridge.

Business is slow at Golden Rule, where customers still have access from College Avenue, a side street. And folks hankering for swordfish can use Broadway Avenue to reach Milford’s Fish House, where manager Jim Dingman reports a few empty seats.

But business is deader than disco at the funky shops, parlors and boutiques on Monroe between College and Broadway. Those shops are reached by Monroe Street alone, and while sidewalks remain open, few people are using them.

“You’d like to take a vacation (during construction), but you don’t have money and you’ve got bills to pay,” said Eloise Moeller, co-owner of Little Nell’s Records.

Most small shops struggle even during good times, said Moeller, who guesses she’s selling fewer than half the soul, rock, blues and other albums she normally would.

“It’s just dead, real dead,” said Barbara Katze, owner of Katze, a dress shop that had just two or three customers last week.

Shopkeepers have little to do but watch the road workers, Katze said.

Constance Eller had hoped some of the construction workers would become customers. But while a few have checked prices at Constant Creations Tattoo Co., none has let Eller turn skin into art.

Only two or three paying customers come to the shop most days, said Eller. Before construction began, she’d serve more than twice that many.

Like other shopkeepers, Eller said she wanted the street fixed and knew the work would slow business. But, she said, she didn’t expect to be hurt quite so badly.

“I thought maybe it wouldn’t be such a desolate street for such a long time,” she said.

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: 2 Color Photos

MEMO: This sidebar appeared with the story: ROAD PLAN Work on the $750,000 project, which started in early August, should be done by mid-October.