Pizza Shops Shun High-Crime Areas Chains Defend Their Decision Not To Deliver To Some Homes

Forget 30-minutes-or-it’s-free. A person living in San Francisco’s housing projects could starve waiting to get a pizza delivered.

Plagued by robberies and even murder, pizza shops and other delivery businesses stay out of the projects. Willie Kennedy, a 72-year-old former city supervisor who lives in San Francisco’s tough Bayview-Hunter’s Point district, calls it racism.

“This neighborhood has been ostracized. They think every African-American is a criminal,” Kennedy said.

Before she retired in May, Kennedy pushed through an ordinance that requires delivery to all neighborhoods.

But the Board of Supervisors has already softened the measure, which carries no fines. The amendment allows delivery people to refuse to go to certain homes if they have a “good faith” belief that doing so would be “an unreasonable risk of harm.”

In Kennedy’s absence, it passed unanimously.

Complaints by delivery drivers about dangerous assignments are not unique to San Francisco. In Los Angeles, some “stealth” pizza drivers dress in plain clothes so they don’t become easy targets. Annapolis, Md., officials earlier this year agreed to investigate discrimination complaints at fast-food restaurants that refuse delivery.

Kennedy’s fight started in March when her grandson, William Fobbs, called two shops, Domino’s and Mr. Pizzaman, to order pizza for his kids. Both refused delivery to his Bayview-Hunter’s Point address.

“And he doesn’t even live in the projects,” Kennedy said.

Pizza shop owners don’t deny they are reluctant to deliver to what they see as high-crime areas.

The Domino’s chain calls them red zones and uses maps with certain streets marked off-limits in red ink. Other areas are marked with yellow. There, drivers will honk their horns for curbside delivery only. Other chains, like Pizza Hut and Little Caesar, have similar policies.

“There are certain parts out there where the bad guys outnumber the good guys - and that worries us,” said David Wilcox, owner of the Domino’s that refused delivery to Fobbs.

Carlos Irias took a job at the Domino’s about four months ago. On one daytime delivery, he was held in a choke hold while a robber took his wallet and nearly $150.

“Sure, I’m scared. But what can I do?” Irias said. “You have to work, you know?”

And it’s not just robberies. Wilcox said his workers’ compensation insurance rates doubled after one of his drivers was killed during a robbery in 1994.

The assailant put a bullet in the chest of 22-year-old Samuel Reyes after a struggle over his new sports car, Wilcox said. However, Reyes was not killed in one of the projects.

“That’s what nobody’s willing to admit,” Kennedy said. “These sorts of crimes happen all over the city.”

In an attempt to be “a good guy,” Wilcox took a drive through the neighborhood with Kennedy’s grandson, who persuaded him to remove several streets not in the projects from the red zone.

“That’s way more than anyone else is willing to do,” said Wilcox, who now boasts increased sales at the Bayview-Hunter’s Point store.