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Despite lack of electricity, business is booming on Main Street

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Flooding photos

Severe storms and flooding have caused problems locally and statewide. If you have been affected, we want your photos. Send us your photo.

To view a gallery of photos of the flooding taken by Gazette photographers, click here.

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JANESVILLE — Russ Allen had just opened Codos coffee shop at 119 N. Main St. when an uninvited customer—the Rock River—closed him right up.

With a plucky, capitalistic spirit, Allen got a generator and a vending cart and is selling his coffee on the sidewalk to people trekking downtown to view the record-setting flood.

From painted windows to T-shirts, some business people are trying to make the best of a bad situation.

And they say there’s a bit of a silver lining: They are getting plenty of exposure.

The businesses along North Main Street have been hit especially hard, and the city shut down their electricity June 14. The flooded transformers will keep the buildings from opening for days.

The stores on South Main Street closed later and are expected to open earlier. The Metropolitan, for instance, reopened Tuesday.

Crowds have been captivated by the cavorting carp in the United Way parking lot, which turned into a riverbed for a fast current. In a freakish show of nature, carp swam up the lot against the current and skimmed along Main Street.

Next door, Sarah Kopp, owner of Perfectly Plus Women’s Consignment, went with the flow.

She had noticed the attention her small sign—“Go away flood, come back electricity”—had garnered.

So last week, she and her business partner, Tanya Kimble, got out the paint and decorated their windows.

“Everyone in Janesville is down here,” Kopp said.

The window reads: “‘Sea’ the Fabulous Flopping Fish Show” and adds to the carnival-like atmosphere.

People snapped away. One man asked if she had any fish and chips.

“We may not have electricity, but we are getting lots of exposure,” Kopp said.

Allen agreed.

He opened Codos on June 6—six days before the water hit. His business had been going well, Allen said.

Last week, Allen, 44, donned a Hawaiian party shirt. Sandbags circled his vending cart. Allen said he couldn’t just sit around waiting for the water to subside.

The door to his café is open, and he invites everybody inside to see his new shop. He figures he’s doing 30 percent of his pre-flood business.

Allen believes everything happens for a reason. He doesn’t think he could buy the exposure that came with the floodwaters bringing thousands of people to downtown.

“If even a small percent of the people who came by come back, I’ll be doing great,” he said.

Down the block, the window at Peanutz T-shirts at 21½ N. Main announced the coming of a limited edition T-Shirt: “I survived the 100-year flood.”

Owner Ryan Kelly said that started out as a joke but likely will become a reality now that he’s had several requests for shirts.

Kelly doesn’t know when the building will reopen but guesses it could be a month because of damage to the transformers.

Right now, eBay and other online auction sites are his best friends.

“This whole thing, it’s been more of an inconvenience,” Kelly said.

“This isn’t do or die for me.”

Across the street, Matt Schreier, owner of the Looking Glass, gave bartenders from the flooded Legends across the street some extra hours and sponsored occasional happy hours. The outdoor patio became a shelter of sorts.

“I’d hate to see the regulars having to find a new home,” Schreier said.

“All the revenues I’ll be donating back to Legends in order to help them stay afloat,” Schreier said.