When a patron alerted Ruti Mejia, partnership director of Indigenous Roots, that a blind, elderly man was struggling to navigate the construction on E. Seventh Street, outside the center, Mejia and a coworker stepped in to help walk him home.
It’s one of the steps the East Side arts nonprofit has taken to navigate a two-year street reconstruction project that has torn up its streetscape.
Mejia said without clear signage or safety barriers, the man could have fallen into a ditch or been hit by a car.
“We care so much about the residents here, and we were advocating for him and we were like, ‘It’s not OK that they don’t have a direct pathway and they just kind of have everything blocked, and are supposed to ensure people are not falling into a ditch,” Mejia said.
The project, led by the Minnesota Department of Transportation (MnDOT), began in March 2025, and is reshaping E. Seventh and Arcade streets between Interstate 94 in St. Paul and Roselawn Avenue in Maplewood. It is expected to wrap up in early November.
Mai Xiong, a spokeswoman for MnDOT and a longtime East Side resident, has worked on the project for more than five years. She said the goal is to improve safety in St. Paul through updates to traffic signals and pedestrian lighting, new sidewalks and roads, curb bumpouts that make it safer for pedestrians to cross and improvements to meet Americans with Disabilities Act standards.
Xiong said this is a special project because they typically don’t do landscaping on road projects, but her team applied for what is now called the Rebuilding American Infrastructure with Sustainability and Equity grant to make the safety improvements.
“I really do think that this investment on the East Side is worth it, [for] the safety, road improvement,” Xiong said. “I know that once construction is done, people will see the types of improvements that will be added to the corridor and added to the experience of their business and their customers.”
While the project is expected to bring long-term improvements to the East Side, its construction has created challenges for businesses along the corridor as they work to keep their doors open.
Local businesses see impact
Mejia said the construction has made it harder for customers to reach Indigenous Roots, affecting foot traffic and sales at its cafe and galleries. The organization has adjusted its programming and tried to update patrons on last-minute street and parking changes.
Henry Garnica, owner of CentroMex Supermercado on E. Seventh, has been working in the East Side for 15 years. He said because of the construction, sales are down by 20 to 60%.
“Many customers move and find another different businesses, the same kind, in different locations, only we don’t know if they are coming back,” Garncia said. “And then we don’t know how much money we will lose in the near future. It’s tough.”
Oscar Murcia, owner of El Guanaco Bakery and Cafe a block away, had his door broken due to construction happening so close to his storefront. He said it’s hard having to pay for broken property when sales are down.
“We need some help, we need some grants, we need some money because we are losing thousands everyday,” Murcia said. “Monday to Tuesday, and weekends, we’re losing another thousand. We’re losing almost $7,000 a week for five to six months. That’s a lot of money.”
Business is down somewhere from 30 to 50% for many of the businesses in the corridor, said Paris Dunning, executive director of East Side Area Business Association.
“Their regular customers aren’t coming in,” he said, and weekend closures have been extra challenging. “It has changed the way the regulars are shopping and the overall volume of people who are coming in.”
Murcia’s daughter Kesia Garcia works at the bakery. She said some customers have blamed the business for construction-related issues, notably the lack of parking.
Garnica said customers don’t want to walk a couple blocks to his store for small purchases, so they go to gas stations. As a result, he said, “we lose the customers.”
“I can’t say to my employees, ‘Ok, I have you this piece of paper [that says] hope. This is your salary,’” Garncia said. “They need money.”
Many immigrant business owners were just recovering from the pandemic when Operation Metro Surge led customers to shelter at home.
“And it’s not for one or two months, it’s for six or eight months,” Omar Garnica, a St. Paul resident and CentroMex customer. “What kind of business is able to support this situation for six months or eight months?
Kesia Garcia said the beginning of the year in Minnesota impacted a lot of the Hispanic small businesses in the area.
“[MnDOT] could’ve taken that into account and be like ‘We can postpone it until later’ so it could give us room to recover from the three months we lost as well,” Garcia said.
Xiong said transportation projects are planned years in advance. By the time Metro Surge affected the community, the East Seventh Street and Arcade Street project was already underway.
“There were a lot of things considered, but I think the most responsible thing to do was continue with road and safety improvements on the East Side versus stalling the improvements that the community needs,” Xiong said.
MnDOT sends project update emails to businesses along the corridor, Xiong said, and her team has conducted community outreach in the neighborhood for the past five years, including presenting at neighborhood council meetings with the Payne-Phalen and Dayton’s Bluff councils.
They also door-knocked in the neighborhood this year, tabled at community events and have sent newsletters updates since 2021, giving residents and majority of the business owners along the corridor information about the project’s progress and ways to get involved. She said the outreach is more than what MnDOT usually offers.
“Being in the middle of construction is really hard to see the other side, and I understand the impact that is have by businesses is going to be more strain but we do try to help as much as possible in maintaining access and continuing to reach out and doorknock and send emails and give advance notice in addition to our project emails,” she said.
Local organizations such as ESABA and the Latino Economic Development Center (LEDC-MN) have worked to provide businesses with resources and support during construction.
“What we have experienced, in terms of the impact from previous months, is that some of the businesses are trying to go back to their regular business operations,” Andres Salinas Sanchez, lending program director of LEDC-MN, said. Whether it’s catching up on debt, paying rent, or being able to hire back their staff, “right now is a time they are trying to stabilize,” he said.
LEDC-MN provides technical assistance, marketing, financing and other resources. Its East Side Emergency Fund has provided $240,000 to 59 businesses during construction, according to Salinas Sanchez.
Another program, the Minnesota Main Street Economic Revitalization program, offered up to $5,000 for businesses affected by Operation Metro Surge, money which could be matched with LEDC-MN’s funds. That program is no longer accepting applications.
ESABA’s Keep It Open on East Seventh Street drew attention to the business corridor through “Construction Bucks,” that they gave to businesses to give customers, among other marketing tactics.
ESABA also helped distribute $5,000 construction mitigation grants to businesses along the corridor. Businesses applied in June, and the first round of funds was recently distributed. The application process is now closed, Dunning said.
Businesses say they are both doing their best to keep their doors open and make it through a tough season.
“We are working for the same goal. We are Minnesotans too, we are doing business in St. Paul, too,” Garncia said. “We love the community, we have to take care of each other in the neighborhood.”
