ROCHESTER, N.Y. -- At the Rochester Public Market, Tuesdays are traditionally pretty slow.

Gary: "Pretty quiet. Pretty quiet. Today's a lot of traffic in here."

You'll find Gary Eaton there 3 days a week, 52 weeks a year. In 45 years, he's seen good times and bad.

But Eaton and other vendors say they've noticed a recent trend: fewer customers, which they say began in the Spring when the city began an over $7 million market renovation project.

The project wiped out more than 40 of the market's closest parking spots.

"It looks to me like [customers] will never come back because they've taken it out of the infrastructure here," said Eaton.

Other vendors notice it too.

Juan Contreras and his wife Maria opened their empanada stand there in 2000, selling thousands of empanadas at the market each week.

"We're losing traffic dangerously," said Contreras.

During construction, his stand has moved to a temporary building.

Contreras says his new home is beautiful, but comes with challenges.

"It's been a real problem with the roof," said Contreras. "There's another leak. It's leaking all over the place."

But it's nothing compared to the bigger challenge Contreras says many market vendors are facing.

"I have vendors that I know that are telling me they might not make it through the winter because of the lack of foot traffic," said Contreras.

Market Manager Jim Farr says the market has actually added 1,000 parking spaces in the past decade. Shuttles take people to and from parking lots further from the market grounds.

"Not enough parking is a good problem to have in some ways," said Farr. "It means it's busy and the place is popular."

When city leaders first announced the project at the Public Market, they said it was being done out of necessity. Many of the buildings date back to the 1970s, and crowds at the Public Market have grown exponentially.

Farr says when the project is done by early summer the market will be able to hold more vendors and more customers.

"One of the reasons we're doing this is to keep reinvigorating the market and making sure it's ready for the next 100 years," said Farr. "It needed to be upgraded and redone."

"It's going to be beautiful. You look at the building it's just gorgeous. But it's going to be difficult to get people to come back and keep coming back," said Contreras.

A thought shared by another longtime vendor, who worries bigger, may not always be better.

"No, bigger is stupid in this case. It's a dream that [doesn't] belong in this city," said Eaton.