More Racism in the Most "Progressive" City in America, Amici's Pizza Edition

I want to refine the point of this a little bit.

Pizza guys (much like cab drivers) are much easier/obvious targets for armed robbery, so if random jacking is going to happen, it's more likely to happen to them with their wads of cash & unattended cars. I'll acknowledge that easily; I worked for a long time as a dispatcher at my dad's cab company, and we had similar problems around certain public housing projects that feature dead-end streets, too. The design and layout of most projects is the biggest contributor to some of the fucked up shit that goes on in there, especially when they break up the natural street pattern (as at Eddy & Buchanan, or 26th & Treat, or Double Rock.) Recommended reading: http://www.amazon.com/Death-Life-Great-American-Cities/dp/067974195X

So, I do think Amici's and other pizza places are justified in doing what they need to do to keep drivers safe, even if it totally sucks that there are plenty of decent people living in proximity to blackout zones who would peacefully exchange money for pizza. This isn't really a knock on them (we took the terminology from the Vegansaurus guest poster, which I believe was intended to be pretty tongue in cheek , even if it's not the most tasteful.)

That said, I found the irony to be in the map's gerrymandered gaps, a near-perfect graphical representation of pernicious, long-standing stereotypes of certain neighborhoods that are in truth, more diverse than the tired "projects = black people = violence" attitudes that do persist widely in a city that, hypocritically, takes every opportunity to bask in the glow of liberalism.

Laura is right; using the streets makes them safer, if for no other reason than it builds your own sense of awareness. The Bayview is a residential neighborhood that looks just like the Sunset or Silver Terrace, and has one of the highest homeownership rates in the city. In it, you will find some (gasp!) black people, along with Vietnamese, whites, gays, Mexicans, etc, etc. It borders on industrial, projects, other residential, and some surprisingly beautiful open space, and when you know your way around it, it ceases to be "scary" to walk around; just unmanageably large and sprawling.

Mugging and jacking happen all the time, in every city around the world, in every neighborhood. It usually happens to people who don't look secure and aware of their surroundings, and sometimes it's just bad luck. (Pizza delivery guys special vulnerability notwithstanding.)

It's not so much about Amici's, it's the huge segment of the population who carries a version of this map in their heads, having no firsthand experience with most neighborhoods outside the few they traverse, paying high rent and eating expensive food and blogging about how gorgeous and awesome SF is, except for the icky parts. That's what rankles.