BIKE LANE VS. SMALL BUSINESS City decision squeezes Paciugo and Jarams Donuts BY SAM GILLESPIE
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t’s a bike vs. business battle, right here in the heart of Lakewood. The fate of two small neighborhood businesses teeters on a decision the City made two years ago, a decision that doesn’t appear to be consistently applied throughout the City. Now that the problem and the contradictions have been brought to the City’s attention, however, there’s seemingly no appetite to right what could be an expensive wrong for the family owners of Paciugo and Jarams Donuts. Cement-curb-protected bike lanes installed in front of these neighborhood businesses during last year’s Abrams Road reconstruction replaced customer parking spaces the businesses’ customers have used since the 1950s. The City’s design decision, placing bike lanes over parking, is crushing these small businesses, the owners say. Paciugo remains closed as a result of the bike lanes, and Jarams’ owners say it’s making a hard business harder. In 2008, April Walding opened Paciugo Gelato at 2115 Abrams, across from Whole Foods Market. Paciugo seems a perfect fit for the neighborhood — a small, locally owned business serving a community that loves supporting small, locally owned businesses. On top of owning and operating the gelato store, Walding and her husband
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bought a partial interest in the building in 2014. They doubled down in 2018, becoming the full owner of the real estate that housed Paciugo and the then-closed Glo Dry Cleaners next door at 2117 Abrams. Today, the Waldings are the landlord for both Jarams Donuts at 2117 Abrams and the empty space next door that Paciugo once occupied. In September 2020, when Walding’s newborn was five months old, the pandemic was searing the economy, a potential buyer had moved on, and it looked like the upcoming winter was going to hurt her seasonal business. “It seemed a good time for me to close the store, take a breath and focus on my new daughter,” Walding says. February of 2021 rolls around. It’s early onset of spring fever. And Walding says she began to think about re-opening her store. Work on Abrams had been going on for several months, and she drove to the shop to watch the roadwork. “Like lots of 7-year-old boys, my son is fascinated by construction equipment,” Walding says. Walding notices what looks like curb construction in front of her building. Then she sees it’s not a curb in the conventional sense, but a raised concrete barrier between her existing sidewalk and vehicle lanes on Abrams. And then the gut punch: The lane reserved for bicycles has replaced
her only available customer parking. According to the Dallas Central Appraisal District, the building at 2115 Abrams was built in 1954, but other evidence exists that it may be even older. As far back as records can be found, parking has always been available in front of the building for customers who patronize the small businesses located there. Prior to gelato and donuts, neighbors remember a flower shop and dry cleaners. For a few years, the building housed a casket company with a showroom. Long-timers even remember a liquor store in the 1970s. Whichever businesses have occupied the buildings, they all have utilized customer parking directly in front of them. For more than 65 years, patrons have been able to park for a few minutes, buy a six-pack, get the dry cleaning, pick up a mum, enjoy a gelato, or buy a Halloween donut with a green witch on it. Here’s the rub: Sixty-five years or not, the parking utilized by owners and customers is in the public right of way. That little piece of real estate has always been owned by the building owners but legally reserved for use by the City to expand Abrams … or in this case, to add bike lanes. Perhaps a sophisticated real estate investor should have looked at the survey, noticed the right of way and closed the deal with eyes wide open. The Waldings
