Pizza delivery policy sparks racism

TARPON SPRINGS -- Most people in the predominantly black Union Academy neighborhood of Tarpon Springs know about the robbery of the Pizza Hut driver in November.

They know because it soon meant they could not get a pizza delivered to their neighborhood after dark.

"I don't think it's fair," said Alicia Porter, a 25-year-old nursing student who lives in Union Academy. "There are bad people everywhere in the world. But they (the pizza companies) shouldn't bar everybody because of it."

It's inconvenient, she said, to have to drive to the store to pick up a pizza. And it's insulting, she said.

"We're black people who like pizza too," she said. "Our money is just like everyone else's."

Pizza Hut isn't the only pizza company that won't deliver to parts of Tarpon Springs due to safety concerns. The owner of the Domino's Pizza in Tarpon Springs said his company stopped delivering after dark to Mango Circle in 1995 after one of his drivers was robbed and severely beaten.

Former City Commissioner Glenn Davis has a different theory about why the pizza companies have chosen not to deliver to some neighborhoods.

At a recent City Commission meeting, Davis challenged city leaders to stop doing any business with any pizza companies that won't deliver to certain areas. He also recommended the commissioners suspend the companies' right to do business in the city.

Mayor Frank DiDonato said he's not sure that's something the city can legally do, but he intends to write the pizza companies to request they meet with city officials to justify their policy.

"I don't think it's right people are being denied service because of where they live," DiDonato said.

Commissioner David Archie, a resident of Union Academy, said the pizza companies' policies unfairly stigmatize the neighborhood.

It is a controversy that has played out in communities all over the country, including several in Tampa Bay. It's even one that Tarpon Springs took on six years ago, Archie said. Then, he said, it was resolved when Pizza Hut agreed to reopen its delivery area.

Julie Hildebrand, a spokeswoman for the Dallas-based company, said Pizza Hut decided to stop nighttime deliveries to parts of Union Academy after the November robbery. In that incident, three teenagers stole $100 from a delivery man and hit him over the head. One of the three teens, who was holding a .38-caliber revolver, fired one shot. It appeared the gun was not aimed at the delivery man, who was not hit. Police arrested all three teens. Christopher Alexander Blanche, 18, the only adult, recently pleaded guilty to robbery and awaits sentencing.

In addition to that incident, Hildebrand said, drivers said they have been repeatedly harassed in the Union Academy area. As a result, the company decided not to deliver after dark to an area bounded by Martin Luther King Boulevard on the south, Lemon Street on the north, Pinellas Avenue on the west and S Disston Avenue on the east.

"We don't want to tighten our delivery area," she said, "but we have to consider the safety of our drivers. People need to feel safe in their job and that's up to us."

The policy has nothing to do with race, she said, noting that the company delivers everywhere during daylight hours. And after dark, people in the restricted delivery area are offered discounts if they pick up their orders at the store.

Archie said the boundaries Pizza Hut has drawn don't make any sense. The robbery occurred south of Martin Luther King Boulevard on Harrison Street. That's outside the area Hildebrand described.

"I can't see what they're basing their boundaries on, except from a race standpoint," he said.

Several churches in the neighborhood can't even get deliveries at night, he said.

Archie also thinks the company shouldn't blackball an entire neighborhood based on one ugly incident.

"That one incident means everyone else in the whole community is stigmatized as a robber," Archie said.

The robbery was committed by three teens, he said, and was uniformly condemned by the community.

"That's not to say that wasn't a serious incident, or that I don't value the safety of employees," Archie said. "But you also have to look at people's rights. I don't want to see any part of our community discriminated against. A lot of this is based on a perception that is not fair."

John Paulette, owner of the Tarpon Springs Domino's, said he has long been a proponent for opening up previously closed areas for delivery, often over the objections of his delivery people. Sometimes drivers don't like to go to poor areas where customers often don't tip as well, he said.

So when he bought the Tarpon Springs shop in 1995, he said, he reopened deliveries to Mango Circle, a residential area with just one way in and one way out.

Two weeks later, he said, a 62-year-old driver was severely beaten and robbed during a delivery on that street. The thieves took $20, beat him over the head with a stick and broke his nose and jaw, among other things. The robbers also stole his 89-year-old mother's rosary beads, Paulette said.

The man ended up on permanent disability, and the company is still paying for a $250,000 workers compensation settlement, he said.

It was a safety issue, period, he said. But his workers probably would have quit had he not done it, he said.

Still, he said, if the neighborhood has changed -- and Mayor DiDonato and Commissioner Archie say it has -- he'd be willing to sit down with residents and talk about opening that area back up.

"I tell my people, I don't care what neighborhood you go to, if you don't feel comfortable, don't go in," Paulette said.

Sometimes, customers are asked to turn lights on. If there's another driver available, he said, sometimes they'll send two people.

Davis, 48, said the pizza companies need to provide better justification for their policy, like crime statistics.

"If they can show me the facts, that it's a reoccuring thing, I'll shut up," Davis said. "No one should have to put their life on the line to deliver a pizza."

"The majority of people in the community are law abiding," he said. But because of the "stupidity" of a few teens, "everybody's being punished for it."

According to crime statistics provided by the Tarpon Springs Police Department, 45 of the 174 robberies that occurred in the city between 1995 and July of this year took place in Union Academy.

But neither Pizza Hut nor Domino's officials cited any crime statistics as a basis for their policies.

"I personally can't believe there is a problem there (in Union Academy)," he said. "I think we need to sit down and talk this thing out. I want to make sure they are being fair and equitable, and not being arbitrary in drawing lines.

"If one part of Tarpon Springs is served, then all parts of Tarpon Spring ought to be served," DiDonato said.

Unless or until a new agreement is reached, Laverne Mackey of Union Academy will have to continue picking up her pizzas at a friend's house a few blocks away, which is out of the no-delivery area.

"Commissioner David Archie, a resident of Union Academy, said the pizza companies' policies unfairly stigmatize the neighborhood."

No, it's the disproportionate violence in your communities that rightfully stigmatizes the neighborhood.

It has to do with employee safety. It doesn't matter if the inhabitants of a high crime neighborhood are white, black, or green, you couldn't pay me enough money to deliver pizza there. I don't think any job in the world is worth losing your life. The bottom line is yeah its inconvenient for residents of Union Academy to have to drive to the pizza store to pick up an order but let's face, high crime exacts costs on law-abiding people living in such bad neighborhoods that those us who don't have to cope with it don't pay. Instead of crying "racism" over Pizza Hut's delivery policy, the people of Union Academy would better focus their efforts on reducing or/and eliminating the crime that led to the policy in the first place. When they do that maybe they'll see the pizza delivery drivers return. Until that happens they'll used have to get used to the fact Pizza Hut's first priority is keeping its employees safe which speaks well of their corporate commitment to their workers. Besides liberals of all people should be applauding a move that puts human lives ahead of the company bottom line.

When I was in college, my job was delevering prescription drugs for the local pharmacy. I drove a little truck with
"DRUGS" on the doors into all kinds of neighborhoods. During the winter the hours it was quite scary. I delivered into housing projects too. And, had to make change and such for the customers. I carried my 357 with
me in the truck. But, didn't carry it to the door. I gladly left this job to work as a janitor in a Urology Clinic owned by the same company. Clean up pee or fear for my life. ...hummm, not a tough decision. Nobody should have to do that job in the truck with "DRUGS" on the door.

Article "black people who like pizza too," she said. "Our money is just like everyone else's."

mass55th wrote: let them put on a company shirt & go to work for one of these places.

This illustrates the Blue Zone problem. Here is a great small business opportunity. I have lived in alleged "high crime inner city areas". Businesses can succeed.

Even worse than residents not having a culture of capitalism mass55th types who have the same lack of faith in capitalism.

How do we get this turned around so we can deal with reality and not the superstitions of both sides?

My second job is as a delivery driver. I drive in a nice, residential areea with mostly affluent people and well-lit streets, but there are times I have been nervous... I would never, as a young fairly defenseless woman, deliver pizzas in an area like they're talking about. I believe the major chains have a "no guns on the job" policy, as well as "don't resist the robbery". This to me is just asking for robberies. The only defense is to deny service to some areas.

Bottom line, the driver's safety is more important than these people's self esteem and little egos.

I used to own a pizza delivery business. I felt a tremendous responsibility to my employees, especially the drivers. There were certain high crime areas where drivers were cautioned. If we had served an area as dangerous as the one referenced in this story, there would have been a ban on deliveries to that area. Anyone who suggests that is a racist call is either (1) full of s*** and completely indifferent to employees' safety or (2) a race-baiter with an agenda. Just as there are places Federal Express won't deliver, there are places you won't go, especially if you are known to be carrying cash (like delivery drivers). These decisions do not make you racist--they make you prudent. There are people who will kill you for your money, and there are areas where this is more likely to happen than others.

I have an idea. Let's let the complaining city councilman deliver pies to the scary area for a month or so. Call his bluff.

These morons need to learn there isn't a Constitutional right to pizza delivery and every occupation has dangers that a business must take into account when they operate. The chance of violence and death to an employee outweighs their pizza needs.

Get over it.

Hey - sounds like you know it as well as I do! These morons should try driving now and then, huh? It's not bad money and a pretty good job, but honestly, the thought of being attacked for the 20 bucks I've got on me is sickening. We just heard last month about a pair of attacks somewhere in the south; a driver was beaten into the hospital by a gang of kids who wanted his car, and another almost killed for the very small amount of money he was carrying.

I hate to say it, but in certain areas, with larger than normal numbers of people who need cash for drug or other purchases, the pizza delivery driver might as well have a sign saying "ATM - Free Cash!" as a "Pizza Hut" or "Dominos" sign...

Archie said. "But you also have to look at people's rights. .."

Repeat after me, Archie:

I do not have the "right" to have a pizza delivered to my door.
I do not have the "right" to have a pizza delivered to my door.
I do not have the "right" to have a pizza delivered to my door.
Since, the no delivery area is geographic, presumably whites, asians and hispanics that live in this area would also be denied this service. I have just one suggestion for the folks here, if it's that important to you, MOVE! Duh!

I used to deliver pizza PT for a nationally known company. I also carried a gun. I was given the choice of driving unarmed or termination.
I quit.

Wise choice.

Heck, why not arm the delivery boy too? All occupations should be armed, including the airline pilots.

Luckily for us, the big "crimes" were (a) drivers with multiple pie runs having the pies filched from their cras while making a delivery to another apartment/dorm, (b) the usual bogus checks and (c) cartop signs being ripped off. I attended national conventions, though, and heard the horror stories from the high security stores (Detroit, DC, etc.). I was shocked that some of these managers could even get drivers.

Here's why.

1. Insurance would be cancelled at once (equivalent to out of business).

2, A driver would invariably shoot a perceived assailant. The resulting civil award against the employer (even if a reasonable person would have perceived himself to have been in life-threatening jeopardy) would force bankruptcy.

You simply cannot win in this instance.

As a result of being a white middle-aged man I too have decided to avoid neighborhoods that have street named after Martin Luther King after dark, does that make me a racist?

I understand your point, but as another data point, I used to live in a middle-class mixed-race neighborhood where everyone took care of their stuff, took pride in their property, and looked out for one another, all in an area that straddled the Martin Luther King Blvd in Durham, NC (a city that is otherwise the murder capital of the state).

I think Dominos and Pizza Hut should contract out the delivery of Pizzas, maybe with even a slight premium, to those areas that are deemed unsafe and see if there are any takers. If not, it speaks for itself. If there is a taker, the pizza companies sell more pizza and eliminate liability for assaults and the independent contract delivery people benefit by making money. Under this plan, there could be no possible racism claims.

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