Racist Pizza

The other day, someone pointed out that somebody else pointed out how the Amici's Pizza Delivery map appeared to be racist in its "coverage".  I, too, had pondered the rationale behind the Amici's map, and whether it had any rational foundation.  This had occurred to me in early 2008, the latter of two back-to-back banner year for homicides in San Francisco.  The old Amici's map was hand-drawn and difficult to line up with some of the Google Maps-based representations of the homicides in the City for 2007 and 2008.

But this newer version makes it easy to see if there is any logic behind it based on location of homicides in SF for 2007-08.  There are much less serious things that could happen to you in the course of delivering a pizza which are undesirable, such as armed robbery or assault.  However, I think most folks would agree that pizza is not worth dying for under any circumstances.

Taking the Amici's map and the 2007-08 maps from SF Crime blog, it is very clear that the delivery coverage is not based on distance or murders. The two white X's represent the two Amici's restaurants.  The circles are in radius equal to the furthest point in each Amici's delivery coverage.  The most apparent thing is the total lack of coverage in the Bayview area despite it being well within the area from a distance standpoint.  The current map is actually a retreat from the earlier one, which went all the way to Cesar Chavez.  However, that map had a special carve-out for the Potrero Hill Housing Projects.  Maybe they were still pissed at the Juice.

While the stack of murders in the Tenderloin/6th Street area appears to justify the 'No Deliveries After Dark' policy, all the shots ringing out in the Mission seem to provide no deterrence.  If you look at the numbers for the Western Addition and Bayview - the two no-go zones that are within actual or projected coverage areas - they are two of the districts in San Francisco with the largest African-American populations at 15% and 34%, respectively.  What does this mean?  I am sure something more complicated than simply race, but it certainly doesn't look good on paper.

Just keep in mind that you aren't necessarily any safer if you decide to go to the mountain when it won't come to you.