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Mayor Fred Keeley (left) talks with Seabright and harbor business owners after a tense city council meeting on Tuesday. Credit: Kevin Painchaud / Lookout Santa Cruz

Posted inBusiness & Technology
‘This is an emergency’: Seabright and harbor business owners demand relief from Murray Street Bridge closure
by Lily Belli3 hours ago

Quick Take

At a tense and emotional Santa Cruz City Council meeting Tuesday, Seabright and harbor-area business owners warned they are on the brink of shutting down due to the Murray Street Bridge closure. Seabright Social is closing, and more than a half-dozen business owners vented their deepening frustration with how the City of Santa Cruz prepared and communicated as the vital bridge was about to close for repairs.
Seabright and Santa Cruz Harbor-area business owners took the mic, one by one, to tell the Santa Cruz City Council that they are on the verge of shutting down due to the closure of the Murray Street Bridge. 
The atmosphere in the council chambers was tense and emotional on Tuesday afternoon as eight business owners expressed their frustrations. Their main complaint: a lack of support from the city. 
Representing about half of the businesses in the lower Seabright neighborhood, the business owners cited their frustration with what they characterized as a lack of communication by the city about the timing and duration of the bridge closures. They said they felt little meaningful support from the city, and now are facing the very real possibility that they could have to close the doors of their businesses. 
“We are down significantly,” said Charles Maier, the owner of The Crow’s Nest, one of Santa Cruz’s most longstanding and iconic restaurants. “This whole thing is an emergency for the businesses around there, but really the whole community is suffering.”

Java Junction owner Michael Spadafora (left) and Charles Maier, owner of The Crow’s Nest, expressed their frustrations at a lack of support from the city. Credit: Kevin Painchaud / Lookout Santa Cruz

“I am having a worse summer this summer than I did during the pandemic,” said Laurie Negro, the owner of Betty Burgers, a local chain with locations in Seabright as well as Pleasure Point, Santa Cruz and Aptos. “I have cut 50 hours per week [at the Seabright location] in the middle of summer. I have never done that in 20 years.” Without the support of summer income for the upcoming slower winter months, she’s worried that she might have let some employees go. 
Business owners need immediate relief in order to stay open, they said, in the form of financial support from the city or an increase in foot or vehicle traffic. They asked if the bridge could open to two-way traffic with the aid of a stoplight, rather than eastbound traffic only, when it reopens in February. Others asked if they could be excused from paying city taxes until the bridge reopens in 2028 in order to lower their overhead costs, and an extension on temporary permits for outdoor dining structures, which are set to expire on July 1, 2026, among other suggestions.
Above all, business owners collectively wondered why the city hadn’t anticipated the dramatic effect the construction on the Murray Street Bridge would have on area businesses, and why there were few meaningful measures taken to ameliorate the steep decrease in foot and vehicle traffic. The bridge is undergoing a three-year retrofit and will be closed both ways through at least February, with another full closure planned later next year.
Seabright Social is the first business to close as the result of lower foot traffic due to construction. Several business owners and Steven Lino, who owns the building, said that the restaurant, once a neighborhood hub, planned to close on Sept. 1. Jon Bates, who co-owns the restaurant with Keikilani McKay, confirmed to Lookout that it will close because of the bridge. 

Patrice Boyle, owner of La Posta in Seabright, started a petition to open the rail bridge to pedestrians and cyclists that has amassed more than 1,500 signatures. Credit: Kevin Painchaud / Lookout Santa Cruz

“We were doing really well. When the bridge closed one way, we lost about 15% of sales. When it closed both ways, sales dropped by 30%,” said Bates. “We saw that this was going to continue for the next three years, and knew it wasn’t tenable for our business.”
Patrice Boyle, the owner of La Posta, questioned whether the Italian restaurant would be able to celebrate its 20th anniversary next year. “This bridge is potentially terminal for us, and I don’t think the city really appreciated the effects of what this would do,” she said. 
Boyle emphasized that the businesses in the area needed relief immediately, and that so far, the city hadn’t followed through on some of its promises. Restaurants like La Posta operate on razor-thin margins, and are already grappling with increasing costs, tariff stresses and immigration fears. 
In late July, Boyle created a petition to open the rail bridge that runs parallel to the Murray Street Bridge to pedestrians and cyclists, and it has amassed more than 1,500 signatures. In order to do so, the city would need to get permission from the Santa Cruz County Regional Transportation Commission, which owns the bridge. Last week, Santa Cruz transportation officials agreed to explore the possibility. 

The Murray Street Bridge will be under construction and fully or partially closed through early 2028. Credit: Kevin Painchaud / Lookout Santa Cruz

Java Junction owner Michael Spadafora has coffeehouses in both the harbor and Seabright neighborhoods, and said sales have declined by more than 25% since late June, when the bridge closed. “This is an emergency, and you guys aren’t looking for serious alternatives on how to handle this. You have not done anything to help the businesses prior to this starting,” he told the city council. 
Mayor Fred Keeley appeared frustrated at how Councilmember Sonja Brunner, who represents District 2, which includes the Seabright and harbor areas, was handling the crisis. He gave clipped responses as she attempted to bring a motion that expanded relief measures for the area. He called a five-minute recess for her to clarify her motion with the city clerk. 
Eventually, the council voted to explore several supportive measures and report back at its Sept. 9 meeting. These include:

• expanding Santa Cruzer electric shuttle service and Santa Cruz Metro bus lines to the Seabright area; 
  
• exploring financing options, like sales tax relief or loans;
  
• extending temporary outdoor dining permits; 
  
• traffic control to allow two-way traffic on the one-way lane over the bridge; 
  
• seeing if there was any way to shorten the timeline of construction. 
  

This is not the city’s greatest moment, said Keeley: “I think that this was foreseeable, and I’m unhappy that it took so long to get to where we got today. It should have been here months ago. I’m not happy about this.” However, he said he feels that things are “moving in a good direction” following the meeting. 
Crow’s Nest owner Maier said he hopes the city will come up with solutions that will offer relief to business owners, their employees and the public: “Hopefully they can come up with some solutions that help not only the whole community getting across town, but also the businesses and employees that are affected now, and if it keeps going, who will be affected even more.”

Seabright Social was previously Seabright Brewery, which first opened when I was in grad school at UCSC. I was saddened by the ownership change. When I first moved to the Cruz, Jingles & I would hit them up for their happy hour (he loved their salmon & calamari bites - I loved their oatmeal stout). When it switched to Social a frew years ago, I was disappointed at first but then they held some dancehalls (which never took off) and I got into their food. They did a good prawns & grits. 

Murray bridge is a major artery to cross the harbor. It is where DM &the Yeti's dear SJSU teammate, Ben Doniach, died in a bicycle accident.