“It was going great. We got through 2020. Then all of a sudden, city construction everywhere.”
Denise (Dee) Mendoza resides in the historic Northeast Lincoln neighborhood of University Place. In early 2020, months before the fateful pandemic shutdowns, Mendoza wanted to bring new fashion to the women of the neighborhood, at decent prices. Thus, the close-knit University Place business strip lining North 48th Street welcomed Beauty Girl-Womens Fashions to the corner of Madison Avenue.
Denise Mendoza, owner of Beauty Girl.
“It was really going well,” Mendoza reflected, “We had four employees. We were starting to stimulate a lot of interest in the neighborhood.”
Then COVID-19 happened.
An all-too-familiar story, the lockdowns and social distancing guidelines of the 2020 pandemic were, frankly, bad for business… especially one just getting its boots strapped on. “We took out loans. We did get one of the business grants and that helped, but that only stretched out for a few weeks,” said Mendoza.
Despite a viral global illness, Mendoza and Beauty Girl persevered through the pandemic, only to face another obstacle. “We were able to reopen, start paying back some of those loans, and started stimulating business again. We were doing well. Then all this happened with the city.”
Lincoln’s massive infrastructure investment campaign, Lincoln on the Move (LOTM), is investing an estimated $94 million in the maintenance and preservation of Lincoln’s streets with project dates going back to 2020. In spring of 2023, work began to repave N. 48th Street from Leighton Avenue to Superior Street with new asphalt, with additional concrete, traffic signal, and sidewalk work. As work progressed, traffic access was restored in segments, reopening from Cornhusker Highway to Superior Street on June 23rd, from Fremont Street to Cornhusker Highway on July 17th, and from Adams to Fremont streets in early September. Leighton Avenue to Adams Street remains closed at this time as construction continues… rendering Madison Avenue, where Beauty Girl rests, the epicenter.
Additionally, in the summer of 2023 a separate planned project—unaffiliated with LOTM—began in the University Place neighborhood, closing off several residential streets for similar repaving and base repair.
Access to the University Place businesses was maintained through sidewalks, however requiring patrons take alternative routes and venture into surrounding residential areas to approach stores or navigate to designated parking areas.
Planned in coordination—also unaffiliated—with LOTM resurfacing of N. 48th, construction began in late spring to replace the 6-inch water main that runs along N. 48th from Leighton Avenue to Gladstone Street.
Swarmed by pylons and road barricades, Mendoza found her boutique at the heart of an increasingly sequestered shopping strip, on the road to ruin.
The central shopping area of Beauty Girl. (Chase Porter, KLIN News)
“I think the way the city did it was just really irresponsible,” said Mendoza.
While many businesses have been able to scrape by with dedicated patrons, often getting there by foot… Beauty Girl was not so lucky.
To renovate the water main, Lincoln Transportation & Utilities (LTU) crews honed in on a fire hydrant on the sidewalk just outside Beauty Girl‘s entrance. “One week I showed up, and there was a massive hole in front of my boutique. You couldn’t even open the door all the way. It was so dangerous. It wasn’t even blocked off. I almost fell in it,” Mendoza recounted, “I said, ‘No, this is too dangerous.’ No one could come into this store. They’re going to hurt themselves.'” Out of concern for everyone’s safety, Mendoza admitted, “I had to let my employees go.”
Mendoza was suddenly a one-woman band, “I would check the store, kind of every week, and come through the back area.” Operating at a minimal capacity, she decided to reach out to the city council for help. “That was in the beginning of May. They didn’t respond back to me.”
A recently unarchived video of construction in progress:
@beautygirlfashions #beautygirl #fashion #lincolnnebraska ♬ original sound – BeautyGirlFashions.com
Business at Beauty Girl then went from slow… to disastrous.
“I came by to get some of my new inventory in the basement, and it was flooded with cement and water. All the inventory was destroyed,” Mendoza told KLIN News. She estimates damage to product tallied around $12,000, “There was no way that I could afford to flip that bill again.”
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- Thick concrete
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- Destroyed product
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- Visible foot prints
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- Soon to be discarded fashion (Basement Photos Courtesy of Denise Mendoza)
Mendoza thought, “Surely, these damages can be covered by insurance. Right?” Wrong. “Turns out, insurance doesn’t cover government interference. They kind of killed my business,” Mendoza chuckled, “I pay for insurance all these years and you’re going to say, ‘Oh, well, that’s government interference. This is not covered.’ I’m like, well, what do I do now?”
With no word from the city, and insurance weaseling out of coverage, Mendoza sought an attorney. However, Mendoza says she was turned away.
More unearthed footage, following the loss:
@beautygirlfashions♬ original sound – BeautyGirlFashions.com
Construction efforts outside of Beauty Girl were at times so intense that Mendoza feared the building’s infrastructure might give. “One day, I was going through the damaged inventory, and they had this big crane, cracking down even more of the sidewalk, taking it away. The whole building shook. I said, ‘I got to get out of here, this is dangerous.’ I was quite fearful for my life. I just think it was extremely irresponsible.”
Lincoln City Council Vice Chair Sändra Washington. (Courtesy: City of Lincoln)
With mounting bills and concrete soaked runway fashions, Mendoza tried to reach the city council again in August. The same day, City Council Vice Chair Sändra Washington wrote back. Washington apologized for the delay and said she would follow up with LTU Director, Liz Elliott.
LTU’s response? According to Mendoza, when they followed up, the official she spoke with told her because of her placement along the main water line, there was nothing that could be done.
Beauty Girl was closed from May until recently. The gaping hole in front of the store has been filled, and the basement remains in shambles. Despite Mendoza’s perseverance, the doors will be closing for good on the University Place boutique at the end of next week, October 28th, with a liquidation sale in effect to try and clear remaining product.
Mannequin heads, one on its side, draped in colorful wigs. (Chase Porter, KLIN News)
“I am going to miss all my customers,” Mendoza lamented warmly. She recounted one in particular, “A young girl came in with her father. She had a hood on, you couldn’t really see her face, but she looked sad. She pointed at this yellow dress. She tried it on, and was smiling ear to ear. Her father told me while she was dressing, she had just finished her chemo treatment, and her hair was to grow back in. These are the moments I’m going to miss.”
In spite of overwhelming misfortune, Mendoza is in high spirits, “I’m hopeful for the future… I’m sad. I cry over it. But I just have to look up.”
When asked if she’s considering relocating Beauty Girl operations, Mendoza said, “If I could find a good store that’s reasonably priced, then I would open again in a heartbeat.” Adding that she’s working to bring the runway fashions of Beauty Girl to the world of TikTok Live, modeling merchandise that could potentially be auctioned to the highest internet-bidder.
The farewell Beauty Girl-Womens Fashions liquidation sale will continue until operations officially conclude next Saturday, October 28th. More information can be found on Beauty Girl’s Facebook page and beautygirlfashions.com.
Mendoza said she intends to bring her story before the city council at a future date.
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Editor’s Note: An earlier version of this article referred imprecisely to the affiliation between road work and water main projects.
Sections of this story have been revised to clarify the timeline of construction along N. 48th Street and the relationships between respective road work and water main replacement projects.
No funds for Lincoln On the Move street improvements have been allocated for water main replacement.
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Road work in progress outside the University Place boutique, on the corner of N 48th and Madison Avenue, under a weather tattered banner displaying it’s name. (Chase Porter, KLIN News)