Demolition at daybreak

The sky is the indigo color of an early morning, half an hour before sunrise. The blinking red of traffic lights reflects off the pavement on the deserted streets. It’s 5:11 a.m.: Bar hoppers have gone home and commuters are not yet out, but at the intersection of Broadway and Tenth Street, Mike McMahan and his three-man team are already tearing off the insulation board and rubber roofing atop the cement canopy that extends from the corner parking lot to Buchroeder’s Jewelers.

McMahan’s team works early in the day so as not to disrupt traffic and business.

“We gotta be cleaned up out here by about 11, so they can keep doing business,” he said.

At 8:45 a.m., sparks fly on the sidewalk, and a worker uses a jackhammer to detach 20-foot sections of the canopy roof. Motorists drive around McMahan’s forklift while he removes sections of cement and deposits them on the pavement.

“It’s a lot easier to take down than to put in,” he said. According to a tentative schedule, the razing should last until Aug. 11, but McMahan says his team is ahead of schedule.

Across the street, Amanda Vander Tuig and her 2-year-old daughter, EllaWyn, look on in awe.

“I’m really excited,” Vander Tuig said. “It feels good, it’s like a new beginning.”

Vander Tuig, owner of The Butterfly Tattoo on Broadway, said she is looking forward to seeing the facades and shops with more personality.

The workers packed up a little before 11 a.m., and the workday started for the five businesses underneath the canopy. But with cement blocks obstructing the parking spots and the sidewalk taped off, business has been a little slow.

Lita Harvey and Paul Blackwell, owners of Classy’s restaurant, said they oppose the project because it disrupts their business.

“It’s another way of wasting money,” Blackwell said. “The canopy is definitely ugly, but it’s also definitely practical.”

George Wren, owner of Wren’s Birkenstock, is also losing business but said he didn’t mind because he thought the canopy was unsightly and outdated.

By morning’s end, five out of 11 sections of the cement canopy had been taken down, and passers-by could get their first look in a long time at Wren’s ornamental facade.

“I didn’t know it looked like that until this morning,” Wren said.