‘Nail in the coffin’

Construction of the 20-minute neighborhoods in six other areas, though, are also hampering businesses, owners said.

In the Grandmont-Rosedale neighborhood, Max Hardy unexpectedly announced the closure of his River Bistro restaurant Sept. 27.

"The nail in the coffin was the construction," said Hardy, who was featured in The New York Times as a leading black chef changing the food industry in America.

Construction outside the Caribbean restaurant started about mid-July. The city tore out water lines and added a stop sign, bike lanes and a turning lane in front of the restaurant.

Hardy, who attended several planning and community meetings, suggested the construction take place at night so businesses would not be harmed.

Instead, patrons endured loud noise, parking hassles and other inconveniences as work crews dug up concrete for two days.

"You could feel the vibration and noise from the construction despite having music on," he said. “Who wants to sit down and have lunch and feel vibrations from guys banging on the concrete? A lot of that was a factor."

Farther along Grand River, other businesses are having problems enduring the construction.

Asia Hamilton, owner of Norwest Gallery of Art along Grand River on the far west side, said the construction initially wasn't a problem. Now, it's difficult to find parking and it's an unpleasant place to walk around with a lot of dirt and debris outside.

"It hasn't been a whole lot of money that's been lost," Hamilton said. "But definitely I've had people that want to rent the venue for things and they've shied away from renting my space because of the parking [and] traffic.”

On the Avenue of Fashion, there have been targeted efforts to patronize businesses during the construction. First Friday “cash mobs” have been launched to infuse at least $5,000 one evening a month onto the strip and at Good Cakes and Bakes, Leah Willis is a part of an artist collaborative that goes to Livernois businesses twice a month.

"If they go away what representation do we have? What kind of diversity [will] we actually have in the area?" asked Willis.

"Our whole solution is black artists supporting other black artists. Wherever we meet, it's at a black-owned business. After I found out about what was going on at Livernois, we are intentionally supporting [them]."

Bartell, the restaurant owner, said he’s counting on Detroit's resiliency to keep the Avenue of Fashion thriving.

"It's important for people around the city who patronize these businesses to make sure we're still [going to] them during this time," Bartell said. "The Avenue of Fashion -- just this stretch of Livernois -- has the largest conglomerate of black-owned businesses and black-owned commercial property owners. And you know, we take pride in that.

"We have to support them even if it causes a little friction in our day and we have to park two blocks and walk to patronize these businesses. It's just important that we support them."