Starbucks closing put spotlight on Broadway. Now, a Sacramento business owner asks, what’s next?

When Annette Serrano opens Lola’s Lounge on a weeknight, few customers walk through.

That wasn’t always the case. Her Spanish and Latin cuisine restaurant, named after her daughter, thrived just a few years ago. Serrano invited local musicians every Thursday and Saturday night after she moved her business to Sacramento’s Broadway in 2019. She held fundraisers, including one for hurricane relief in Puerto Rico.

That changed as the neighborhood around her struggled, first during the COVID-19 and then as a perception set in that crime and homelessness made it unsafe.

Now she can’t bring artists to perform for an empty restaurant. She offers entertainment only twice a month.

“It’s not just this community,” Serrano said. “We have been struggling since the pandemic. I personally feel very alone as a business owner. I feel like I’m on an island.”

Her business sits on a part of central Broadway that’s in transition. It looked to be on the rise when she moved to Sacramento, neighboring a revitalized plaza that included chains like Chipotle, Jamba Juice, Noah’s Bagels and Starbucks. The popular Tower Cafe sits just across the street.

Sacramento had plans to keep the momentum going with a multi-million dollar project that would spruce up the strip with trees, public art and pedestrian crossings — the kind of amenities that would encourage people to linger.

But the city has not executed on that project, and in the meantime, several businesses folded, including a Starbucks that shut just after the coffee chain announced a batch of closures connected to safety concerns.

Sacramento leaders say help is one the way with the redevelopment plan slowly moving toward construction.

In the meantime, Serrano said her business is suffering because of the Broadway closures. She made the move to Broadway because of the culture and the potential dynamic life the street offered. She worries what will close next.

“I feel safe here,” she said. “I am always at Lola’s. It’s not what people and the press make it out to be.”

What happened?

Jamba Juice and Starbucks closed their businesses on Broadway in August and September. Bank of America also closed the inside of the bank.

It wasn’t the only Starbucks closing. In July, Starbucks announced it planned to close 16 stores because of a variety of safety concerns across the country.

Also in July, Caltrans cleared homeless camps near a Highway 50 ramp a few blocks from Lola’s. Business owners and neighbors noticed new encampments pop up closer to the Starbucks.

Starbucks closed its Broadway location shortly afterward.

“Our stores are windows into America and every day our partners witness the challenges facing our communities – challenges to personal safety and security, racism, a growing mental health crisis, and issues magnified by COVID,” Starbucks spokesman Sam Jefferies said in a statement to The Bee in August. ”These challenges play out within our stores — affecting our partners, our communities and our customers alike.”

Police records show 40 incidents in the last two years in the area of the Starbucks, including aggravated assault, shoplifting, battery, and vandalism.

The reports do not break down whether the incidents occurred at the Starbucks or in the shopping center that houses it.

After the Starbucks closing made the news, a group called For a Better Sacramento and neighbors held a demonstration on Broadway where members demanded more public safety spending and raised concerns about safety in North Land Park. They carried signs that read “enough,” and “shops and kids, not pimps and drugs.”

Another group of homeless advocates who favor more spending on social services confronted the demonstrators there. The two sides argued over how the city should address crime and homelessness, causing police to shut down Broadway on a Sunday morning.

“We cannot wait. Every day, wherever you go, we see the results of crime, blight, and open drug use,” members of For a Better Sacramento wrote in a statement last week.

They stressed they “have compassion for the unhoused” and favor transitional housing and more services for homeless people.

Today, people are cautious about what they say about crime and homelessness around the closed Starbucks. A reporter visited the neighborhood a couple of times in September. Employees and customers complained about visible drug use, but they did not want to share their names.

A walkable Broadway

Broadway could look very different in just a couple of years. The city has big plans to turn the strip from a commuter corridor to a pedestrian-friendly neighborhood with a commercial district.

In 2020, the Sacramento City Council adopted a plan for the 292 acres around the Sacramento River, Highway 50 and Broadway to create a more “walkable neighborhood and improve multimodal connectivity.”

The Land Park Community Association said its members look forward to the changes.

“We’d like the future of Broadway’s corridor to be a clean, vibrant and safe place for everyone to visit and enjoy,” the association said in a statement to The Bee. “We hope the city’s plans help make that a reality. The revitalization of areas like R street are a great example of what is possible.”

The Complete Streets Project will cost $15 million, redesigning Broadway from 3rd Street to 29th Street, in part by taking away one lane of the four-lane strip. Construction, which will include adding bike lanes, pedestrian crossings, trees, lighting and public art, will begin in May 2023.

“We are hoping that it will change the look and the feel,” said Joan Borucki, executive director of the Greater Broadway District. “Making it more walkable and friendly will generate more business.”

Borucki acknowledged that others see homelessness, drug use and mental health crises. But those challenges are pervasive across the city, she said.

Broadway leaders have hired maintenance crews to pick up and dispose needles and remove graffiti. In June, they doubled the hours of the private security to 16 hours seven days a week. Sacramento Police have also increased patrols in the district, which resulted in numerous arrests for drug sales.

Mayor Darrell Steinberg said the city’s long-term plan for Broadway will make the strip more attractive, but he added the city and county must provide more help to the homeless to relieve some of the pressures on businesses there.

“The city is making substantial investments along Broadway to calm traffic and create safe spaces for pedestrians and bicyclists. I’m optimistic about the future of this crucial part of our city as a mixed use district with housing, business, great dining and culture. Today, Broadway businesses and residents are rightfully concerned about unsheltered homelessness and its effects. The current situation doesn’t work for anyone,” he said in a written statement. “The truth is we need more shelter, housing and drug and mental health services in order to provide the relief people expect.”

While there are two homeless shelters on and near Broadway, there are rarely any beds available.

About 9,300 Sacramento County residents experience homelessness on any given night, according to a recent count. Sacramento County, there are only about 2,400 beds and spaces.

Lola’s thrived in Sacramento

Serrano is worried about Broadway’s current reputation harming her business. Restaurants like hers suffer greatly, with very little support around her, she said.

“It’s a difficult area, but it seems to have been exaggerated,” she said. “All of Sacramento is in bad shape,” Serrano said.

Lola’s was a success in Elk Grove, Serrano said. It was the local neighborhood spot. She didn’t have to move it to Broadway in 2019, but it just seemed to be a perfect fit.

The proximity to Land Park and Tower Cafe — which Serrano describes as a landmark — drove her to make the move.

She put her entire life savings into the restaurant, employing eight people. Her chef has dedicated the last eight years to recreating special family recipes passed down from Serrano’s aunts and uncles. The Cuban Sandwich, filled with slow roasted Puerto Rican pork, ham, salami, Swiss cheese and mustard, is a family favorite.

“Don’t stay away. There are still a bunch of great restaurants here.”

This story was originally published October 14, 2022 at 5:00 AM.