Updated to Thursday 13.6.2024 12:06hs
The merchants in the area surrounding Pellegrini Boulevard and 9 de Julio, where a deep sinkhole opened on April 4, have already had low customer attendance for more than two months with the consequent impact on sales: they register drops of 50 and 60%. At this point and with no deadlines for completion of the sewer repair work, they express dismay, anguish and anger because they do not know how to maintain the business nor do they feel supported.
Between the fencing put in place from the beginning and the interruption of traffic as a precaution, added to the extensive work being carried out to repair the pipe that caused the collapse, the attendance of people in that entire sector dropped significantly. The most affected commercial premises are those located in the blocks of South Hand Boulevard – at 2700 and 2800 – and on 9 de Julio Street, between Boulevard and Obispo Gelabert, which have been closed to vehicles since they began. the thickest tasks.
“It’s as if we were in a pandemic,” said the owner of a well-known ice cream parlor franchise that was installed two years ago on the boulevard, while asking her partner to speak in the note because she “was going to cry.” Edmundo Ramos took the lead and told El Litoral that “sales are terrible and circulation is zero; so logically almost no people come.” He noted that a few meters away, on the corner of Boulevard and San Jerónimo, where traffic is enabled, the panorama already changes. “It’s remarkable how they work, while here, zero,” he said.
Distressed, the owner-partner pointed out that the drop in sales is “greater than 60%.” And he indicated that “with two tables occupied we cannot sustain the business” which last year at this time was working very well with the cafeteria. “We rent the premises, which have a high price on the boulevard, and everything is done uphill. The truth is that we are very bad,” he said.
Ramos added that although they spoke with municipal authorities, “there is very little they offer us.” They asked to organize some type of event or festival on the street run by the municipality, to recover a little, “but they tell us that many people cannot gather because there is a danger of sinking.”
“Ineffectiveness”
Gustavo Auday, manager of a business selling veterinary products, directly expressed his anger with the situation and the municipal authorities. “The street is closed and we have been two months since everything started. This is the third municipal Drei ticket that I have paid, but I have a 50% decrease in sales,” he complained, and added: “Commercially, this bothers me.” killed.”
Due to the characteristics of the business, it requires customers to park their car in front of the store – located on the south side of the boulevard, halfway down the block between 9 de Julio and 1° de Mayo – “in order to take the 20 kilo bag of food balanced. With the street closed they can’t. To compensate a little for the fact that people don’t come, we take the merchandise to some clients but that involves personnel costs, gasoline, etc. “
Auday complained because the “authorities did not appear and they did not let the inspector move the fence on the corner to let the customers pass for a few minutes to look for the merchandise. Only now, they let one pass every once in a while, but you have to ask for permission. No one came to my place to ask how I was, if I was missing something or how they could help me. Here there is a total ineffectiveness of the Municipality, no one listens to you, we are in a labyrinth that no one solves anything.”
Like a disaster zone
The corner of Boulevard and 9 de Julio resembles a disaster zone, in the midst of the renovation tasks that involve moving debris, earth, the work of backhoes, workers, erection of steel walls and construction materials in the stonemason. central boulevard and street. Added to this panorama is the maxi kiosk on the southeast corner that closed days after the problem began, leaving a huge empty store. Next door, on July 9, a bakery that had already closed, now began the demolition of the building, which adds rubble and bricklayers to meters of work.
On the opposite sidewalk, a traditional Santa Fe ice cream parlor is impacted not only by the blockage of traffic and the passage of machinery along the boulevard, but also by the walkway over the sidewalk that was partially broken when the energy company carried out the by-pass. Passage of buried high-voltage cables, before other works begin to reach the general sewage conduit.
Merchants ask for help to get out of this moment. They raised their disagreement with the municipal authorities. Credit: Manuel Fabatia “Here people have to go through a walkway, on the sidewalk. No one comes all day because they can’t walk there either; we are practically surrounded,” said Alejandro Carballo, in charge of the business that was empty in the afternoon.
This problem was added to the normal decline in seasonal sales. “We are working at 5% of what we usually do. Other winters we had 9 people left, now we are 3 and they rotate for weeks so that they are not left without work. But there is suspension of personnel, added to the high rates that came,” said the merchant. , who said that he is thinking of making a formal presentation to the municipality and the companies involved in the work “to get some type of help.”
“They are afraid”
On July 9, closer to Obispo Gelabert, a hair salon incorporated a kiosk as an attempt to get out of this moment. “It’s a gamble, because for now I stayed with the regular clients, but the lady who passed by here and came in to get a haircut on the way, I lost that clientele. Many people don’t come because they are afraid that this area will become come down; they tell me and that’s the truth,” said hairdresser Diego Piazza.
