A Community Reeling from Months of Disruptive Construction Asks: Was It Worth It?

Chris Dainty is wearing his ever-present Padres hat and a black T-shirt from Kelly’s Olympian, a bar and music club in Portland. He is standing behind the bar at Key and Cleaver, his burger restaurant on the corner of University and Euclid avenues in City Heights. Kelly’s opened in 1902, Key and Cleaver in 2023.

Dainty is talking about his BBQ bacon burger — the beef comes from a ranch in Julian, the sauce is his own recipe and the bun is from Bread and Cie. The beers on tap are from San Diego’s breweries.

After a couple decades of working in bars and restaurants, he and his wife, Jenn Hager, opened their place in 2023 just as a major road construction project started down the block.

Hospitality, he says, is a tough business. He’s seen really good bars and restaurants close for all kinds of reasons. Most don’t make it to the century mark like the one in Portland. But after opening in April 2023 and getting great reviews, he didn’t expect to have to lay off staff 18 months later.

Dozens of City Heights small business owners have a similar story about a survival struggle over the last 30 months as the city’s University Avenue Complete Street construction project dragged on over a year past its original deadline. Others expressing frustration include Mick Rossler of Tower Bar, Kathy Taing of the Cambodian-Chinese noodle shop Trieu Chau, Andrew Benavides of Cafeina Cafe and Mazda Mehraz of Dan’s Auto.

Along the half-mile project’s seven blocks, you’ll also see an ice cream shop, Mexican and Vietnamese bakeries, a laundromat, a Chinese herb store, a pool hall and a barber shop. There was a time, Rossler said, when you could only find coffee at Starbucks. Now you have multiple places to grab Cafe de Olla or a horchata latte.

The businesses reflect the people and cultures that call the vibrant neighborhood home.

Sean Elo-Rivera is the city councilmember who represents City Heights. The neighborhood, he noted, needs businesses that care for and are connected to a community where people speak dozens of languages and 70 percent of residents are either Hispanic or Asian. If those businesses close, Elo-Rivera notes, there is no guarantee their replacements will have the same neighborhood connection.

“We know that these small businesses are oftentimes operating on very thin margins,” he said. “And when they are impacted for a long time in a significant way, you are really increasing the odds that (they) won’t make it.” If they do close, he wondered: “What will come in its place, especially in this economy?”

A taste of home might not be around the corner anymore, which would reduce the appeal of City Heights for many residents.

Although there are many positives about the neighborhood, City Heights has challenges. One convenience store owner boarded up a corner window because vandals kept breaking it. Some streetlights don’t work. People worry about affordable housing and what to do about those who don’t have permanent places to live. Despite those realities, Rossler said, it is improving. He remembers when people didn’t visit, they simply drove through the neighborhood on the way to somewhere else.

Dainty, Taing and Mehraz like City Heights because of the affordable rent, authentic people and exposure to lots of passersby – either by foot or by car.  Benavides recently celebrated six years of business ownership in the neighborhood where he grew up. When the street project started, owners like Mahrez decided to hunker down and carry on despite road closures, construction fencing going up in front of their doorways, parking lots closing unexpectedly and jackhammers taking away driveway aprons. All this just two years after the peak of Covid-19. They trusted the city when it said the job would be done on schedule. But they’ve seen neighboring businesses go under as the half-mile street improvement project dragged on.

Elo-Rivera firmly says the University Avenue project was a major need. There were too many accidents and even deaths involving cars and pedestrians.

“This was one of the most dangerous and deadliest stretches of road in San Diego County. … University Avenue is significantly safer as a result of the work that’s being done,” he said.

The work smoothed traffic flow by eliminating left turn lanes, reducing travel lanes from two to one in each direction, removing three lights and replacing them with roundabouts at Highland, Chamoune and Menlo avenues. Pedestrians can now cross University Avenue with the aid of flashing lights at 44th, 45th and 46th streets along with the named avenues. Corner bump-outs prevent turning vehicles from coming too close to sidewalks and pedestrians are asked to use crosswalks that are about 15 feet down side streets instead of crossing at the junction. Below the road surface, crews worked to improve storm water drainage.

The job started in early 2023 and was supposed to take about 16 months. But on July 1, 2025, West Coast General construction trucks still dotted the street, as crews poured concrete and fencing blocked off some sidewalks, pushing pedestrians into the street or forcing them to cross to the other side.

The $13 million project is nearing its end – paving, painting and landscaping will come next but will be mostly done at night and be finished by the end of the summer, according to city officials.

Business owners who have suffered a loss of income and put off expansion plans are not holding their breath that the fall will bring relief. After all, a city of San Diego social media post on March 29 touted the project would “wrap up this spring.”

When the eastbound lanes of University Avenue closed in October 2024, Dainty said his business dropped by 40 percent. When other sections closed and traffic was re-routed, Taing’s customers stopped coming in from Clairemont and Linda Vista. Restaurants that depend on take-out orders said Uber Eats drivers canceled pick-ups because they couldn’t park nearby. Pedestrians could not window shop because construction fences blocked their path. Mahrez had to hang banners saying “open during construction” from the fence that suddenly bordered his parking lot after his entry on University Ave was closed. He says business is still down from 2022.

All of the business owners interviewed for this story understand construction delays. But in their minds, a reasonable delay would have been a month or two, not an entire year. The city points to an early issue that caused a seven-month setback.  Construction workers discovered an underground San Diego Gas & Electric vault in the area that the utility would have to relocate. The bunker conflicted with storm drain installation and road improvements.

Tyler Becker is a spokesperson for the city. In a statement, he wrote that each improvement program in San Diego “is unique, and can have its own set of unforeseen challenges. Our staff and contractors make every attempt to create solutions for these challenges and avoid construction delays as we understand the impact any disruption can have on residents and businesses.”

Speaking on background, one person familiar with the work suggested that the vault was just outside of the project’s border, which is why it was not identified in the original plans. However, due to its proximity, SDG&E needed to move the vault.

While the power company moved the vault, construction stopped.

Nearly every person interviewed for this story wanted to know why West Coast General, which has been awarded upwards of $65 million in city contracts since 2015, was unable to pivot and work on a different part of the project while the electrical vault was moved. Becker said the city declines requests to make contractors available to discuss projects with the media. Emails and phone calls to West Coast General were not returned.

Reza Akhavian is an Associate Professor at San Diego State in the department of Civil, Construction and Environmental Engineering. He discussed current best practices , noting he was not specifically talking about the University Avenue project.

“It’s crucial to map and coordinate with utility companies in advance,” Akhavian said. He also highlighted the need to work in segments and emphasized communication with stakeholders.

“The goal is not merely to inform, but to build trust, manage expectations, and maintain a sense of partnership.”

Elo-Rivera said he hasn’t been offered a good explanation by the city or by West Coast General as to why there wasn’t a pivot while SDG&E did its work.

The councilmember has specific concerns about the contractor – noting many of his constituents complained that barrels, fencing and construction materials stayed in place well after work was finished – and he thinks the city needs to be more demanding of construction firms and insist work be completed on time.

“I have a huge problem with people who are profiting off the city, doing work in neighborhoods that have often been disrespected and underappreciated, and like, leaving them in a really disrespectful way. And right now … I couldn’t tell you what the consequences are in any meaningful way. And that’s a problem.”

At this point, he said, the project “just has to get done … and the community needs to be supported until it’s done, and there needs to be accountability for everything that went wrong in not getting it done.”

Becker said all contractors are evaluated by a city engineer as their work progresses. Upon completion, the primary contractor receives a final performance evaluation. Contractors who fail to live up to the city’s standards can be debarred. At this point, Becker added, no decisions have been made about West Coast General’s participation in future projects.

One group that is supporting the business owners is the City Heights Community Development Corporation, which on July 14 started delivering $3,000 checks to business owners who could provide tax statements showing they suffered a loss in the last two years compared to 2022. Sylvia Ramirez is the organization’s Director of Economic Development. She explained that the CDC raised about $90,000 which will be distributed among about 30 businesses.

Tom Bui is the CDC’s economic development program manager. He dropped off checks on July 14, calling them “a band-aid on a bullet wound.”

Business owners say they hope the project works as intended. It will take some time to find out if it was worth the pain. Right now, the community is in the midst of a learning curve – drivers are learning the roundabouts and cars have been seen driving over the median. Not all pedestrians enjoy walking a few extra steps to the new crosswalks.

“It’ll be nice when it’s done, but it’s just taking a long time,” Rossler said. Taing’s customers tell her they are happy to return now that major construction is finished. But she wondered if it was necessary in the first place. 

“This is like a regular street,” she said. “I think the [roundabouts] would fit better near a park or close to the beach where the tourists are located.”

Dainty had to lay off three employees when business dried up last October. He’s now working five-day weeks instead of six and again seeing regulars and newcomers.

But he also wondered if the city would have let the project get so far behind in a wealthier part of town. “I’m pretty sure this would have been resolved a long time ago.”

Dainty is considering opening a second location in Oceanside – something he had his eye on a year ago but had to delay. And he has an optimistic view of the future in City Heights. When asked what he’d say to someone thinking of starting a business there, he had an easy answer.

“I’d say: ‘Come on down, the bad part is over and now it’s on the up-and-up, looking better.’”

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