It’s hard to get all of the pieces of an improvement plan to fit together in a way that benefits everyone all the time. We get that. But our heart does go out to the businesses on Barraque Street that have suffered and are continuing to suffer as the StreetScape project goes on — and on and on and on.
One of the elements of a successful downtown area is to have something down there for people to do or see or eat. Along Barraque, there are two eateries, and each is a delight. Want to get away from the world for a bit? Head into MaryAnn Lee’s Indigo Blue Coffeehouse. She’s been there since the summer of 2018, knowing she was taking a chance on an area that had been long forgotten. She serves a variety of sandwiches and coffees and teas, among other tasty treats.
Next door is Margaret Pace-Smith’s Unique Cakes establishment, which also serves a hearty sandwich and oh, my, cupcakes that are worth making a special trip to get.
The problem is the street work. If you’ve been downtown recently, you know it’s just a mess. Heavy equipment, cement mixers, rough terrain, dust, noise. Unless you are the bravest of souls, it’s a lot easier to go elsewhere to get a bite than to travel down around to where these two restaurants are.
And that is exactly what has happened.
Independent reporting for Pine Bluff & Jefferson County since 1879.
On a good day, there’s not a ton of traffic into the restaurants, but even those modest numbers have fallen since the street work started way back when.
Said Lee: “When you dig big holes in the front of the building, people can’t get in here. There’s no place to park, and there’s no way to safely get in here.”
We worry that once the streets and sidewalks are all prettified, we’ll be back to what it was like down there before all the work was done: mostly businessless.
In the meantime, may we suggest a sandwich and a coffee and then a cupcake for later? Perhaps, office managers in the area could have employee appreciation day once a week and spring for lunch at one and then the other restaurant. Call in a big order and then send the person wearing the most rugged footwear to go get the sacks of food.
Anything would help these two businesspeople, and we hope that whatever help that comes will sustain them until the dust stops flying and things are back to normal.
“What do you do,” said Pace-Smith. “It’s really, really sad that it had to come to this.”
Let’s all pitch in and keep “this” from happening. We need these folks and other folks like them to thrive in the downtown area. At some point, we won’t need a four-wheel-drive to get to them, but until then, let’s do what we can.