SAN ANTONIO — Adriana Flores is a part of Alamo Music Center's 93-year-long legacy. 

“1929, which is the beginning of the [Great] Depression, and so whenever I think, 'How did he start a piano store in the middle of the depression?' That’s insane. No one does that,” Flores said.

Whenever her father took over the store, he created more options like guitars, accordions and even curriculum books. 

“A lot of the high school, middle school teachers use [these books] when they teach first-year band students, second-year band students,” Flores said. 

They sell instruments to folks all over the country, but there’s been another tune that’s affected their business: the heavy construction nearby, which has caused them to miss out on $60,000 in walk-in traffic. 

“It’s been challenging for us and it’s uncomfortable, but it has to happen,” Flores said. 

The same is felt by businesses all over the city where there’s 51 projects that will improve the streets, sidewalks and drainage, but Public Works assistant director Luis Maltos said there are many obstacles that they face. 

“Every time we reconstruct the road, we take the opportunity to upgrade utilities, so that’s when we face a lot of conflicts, a lot of the delays,” Maltos said. “You start opening up the ground and you start to see to see utility lines.” 

This compounded weather and supplies issues, but when contractors hit a water main, it caused Flores’ basement to flood and damaged several guitars. 

“But if you make a mistake, you make it up. They came in, excavated, made that corner safer. I appreciate that,” Flores said. “They postponed demolishing the sidewalk. Is it still inconvenient? Yeah.” 

Maltos said he understands the inconvenience it can have on a business. 

“Construction is pretty disruptive, right? We try to make it as painless as possible so we do reach out to our stakeholders. We have public meetings,” Maltos said.

There’s a part of the sidewalk closest to Flores’ store which is about to be complete. She also just applied for the city’s construction grant, which got her up to $30,000.

“Is $30,000 enough for covering $60,000? No. It’s not enough. I don’t know what else they can offer,” Flores said. 

This is the cost of a city that is rapidly developing.