3
Redlining a neighborhood
By Elizabethe Holland
ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH
10/02/2005
When one of its employees was robbed, stabbed and sexually assaulted while trying to deliver a pizza, Imo's Pizza in Kirkwood responded with a new rule: Its drivers would no longer make deliveries to Meacham Park, the neighborhood where the attack occurred.
Imo's isn't the first business to put an "X" on a map, refusing service out of concern for safety. But to critics of such decisions, those X's are too harsh and too loaded.
"There's the implication that everyone in that community is complicit, that 'Any one of you is looking to do this to us,'" said Redditt Hudson, a racial justice associate with the ACLU of Eastern Missouri. "The same qualities we find in the best people anywhere in (the St. Louis) community, you find in the best people in Meach
am Park. And I don't think they should be penalized for what a few peo
ple have done."
Meacham Park, a community of about 350 homes, is a mostly African-American enclave in southeast Kirkwood. The area has had its struggles, and coping with racial tension is among its most significant. In July, the tension escalated after the fatal shooting of Kirkwood police Sgt. William McEntee. Kevin Johnson, 19, is charged with killing the officer, who was sitting in his patrol car in the neighborhood.
The latest incident pushed Meacham Park into the headlines again.
About 11 p.m. Sept. 22, at least two males attacked an Imo's employee, 36, while she was delivering pizza to an address in the 400 block of Attucks Street. One attacker stabbed her and demanded money. The assault continued until a passing vehicle's headlights and the woman's screams for help caused the attackers to flee.
Two days later, Kirkwood police charged Dameion Pullum, 19, and Kenny Johnson
, 17
, wi
th sodomy, first-degree robbery, first-degree assault and three counts of armed criminal actio
n. Johnson lives in Meacham Park, and Pullum used to before moving to St. Louis.
The woman, a mother of four, was released from a hospital last week.
After initially speaking openly about the decision to end pizza deliveries in Meacham Park, the Kirkwood Imo's manager and company representatives said last week they would no longer comment on the matter.
"It just inflames the whole situation, and basically, we're following the advice of the Kirkwood Police Department - that's about all we have to say," said a woman at Imo's main office who identified herself only as Val.
But Kirkwood police Lt. John Folluo said delivery decisions are made by businesses, not by the police.
Imo's isn't alone in its response to the attack - and in how it deals with areas labeled as sketchy.
Papa John's in Rock Hill plans to no longer deliver p
izzas in
Meacham
Park after dark, said the business's general manager, Tim Byerley. As for the rest of the St. Louis area, there are other neighborhoods t
he chain's drivers don't go into because of safety concerns, said another Papa John's supervisor who asked not to be identified.
Domino's in Kirkwood halted deliveries to Meacham Park until two of the suspects were apprehended, said Dan Sokolik, marketing director of MBR Management and Marketing, which operates 46 Domino's in the St. Louis area. But while the business is back to serving the neighborhood, Sokolik said employees work on the recommendations of law enforcement agencies and that drivers have the option of not making a delivery.
"If they feel an area is unsafe, they're instructed to not get out of the car, turn around and drive back to the store," Sokolik said. "We never want to alienate customers. . . . But we keep the safety and security of our own employees as our top priority.&qu
ot;
P
izza places
aren't the only businesses that avoid certain areas.
While the Post-Dispatch doesn't block out entire neighborhoods, it allows independent contractors not to deliver to cert
ain streets if they raise safety concerns, said Steve Helm, the newspaper's director of circulation. As for Meacham Park, Helm did not know whether there were specific streets that contractors avoided but said they "by and large" deliver to the neighborhood.
Jerry Standley, president of Laclede Cab Co. in St. Louis, said that although the company hasn't had a request from Meacham Park in about six months, it limits business there to daytime hours.
In areas considered dangerous, Laclede's cabdrivers make arrangements with customers - some 80 percent of whom are regulars - to meet somewhere considered safe, Standley said.
"Most understand," he said. "The drivers' safety, to me, comes first."
But critics say there is more to
such decisions
than safety con
cerns.
The U.S. Department of Justice, for example, investigated Domino's practices after receiving complaints that the chain was refusing to deliver to predominantly black areas. Consequently, Domino's agreed in 2000 that it would
not refuse to deliver to certain areas based on race.
Hudson, of the ACLU, doesn't like to see any neighborhood spurned, even when safety is a proven concern. In the case of Meacham Park, Hudson would have liked to see Imo's get more involved with the community rather than distance itself.
"Why not post a reward?" he asked. "Why not reach out and say, 'Hey, help us. Let's come together and see if we can do something about this horrible thing that happened.'"
Janet Jones, of Meacham Park, said residents of the neighborhood did, in fact, help police find the suspects.
"Nobody in the community condoned (the attack) because it could have been my kid or me or any
body, and she's
just an average, e
veryday working mother," Jones said. "We were shocked.
"But if the same thing had happened in Kirkwood, would (Imo's) have shut down and not delivered in Kirkwood?" Jones asked. "No, they would have still delivered."
Harriet Patton, president of the Meacham Park Neighborhood Improvement A
ssociation, said she spoke last week with the Kirkwood Imo's manager, Christina Prosperi, to convey how upset the neighborhood is about the attack. She said the two also discussed the possibility of Imo's continuing service at some point and that Prosperi told her she had received many calls from residents regarding the victim and the decision to sever the relationship with Meacham Park.
While Jones said it's unfair that Meacham Park and other mostly black neighborhoods get bad raps when incidents such as last week's happen, she does empathize with Imo's.
The owner did what he needed to do to protect
his employees, she sai
d. "It's not f
air to the rest of us . . . , but I could have been one of those employees."
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