No-Pie Zone : Pizza Maker Won’t Deliver to Oxnard High-Crime Area

The Oxnard city councilman’s wife just wanted a slice of pizza. One with “the works”--hold the anchovies.

So when Pizza Hut flatly refused to deliver to her La Colonia office in the middle of the day, citing crime risks in the Oxnard barrio, Priscilla Herrera responded with political firepower.

She called her husband, Andres Herrera, who launched a city investigation into Pizza Hut’s no-pie zone.

The company does not restrict deliveries anywhere else in Ventura County based on crime rates, a spokesman said. It is unfair, Priscilla Herrera said, for Pizza Hut to single out La Colonia for no deliveries when violence could occur anywhere.

Pizza Hut “is out delivering at night in areas where they could easily be robbed,” she said.

Andres Herrera was unavailable for comment Tuesday. But at his request, the city sent a letter to Pizza Hut’s corporate headquarters to inquire about their delivery policies, said Greg Simons, an aide in Oxnard’s Community Relations Department.

The company has agreed to send a representative to Oxnard to review its practice of refusing deliveries to La Colonia, Simons said.

Pizza Hut allows local franchisees to decide whether an area is too dangerous for employees, said Rob Doughty, vice president of marketing communications at Pizza Hut’s corporate headquarters in Wichita, Kan. Shop owners review police records and rely on their own experience to determine whether service should be restricted, Doughty said.

Until two years ago, Pizza Hut delivered to La Colonia before nightfall, Doughty said. Operators decided to stop delivering altogether following several incidents in which drivers were shot at or assaulted, he said.

The company offers a 10% discount to residents and businesses in restricted delivery zones if they agree to pick up their pizza at the store, Doughty said. Pizza Hut will not resume deliveries in affected zones unless officials can provide “hard facts” showing that crime has decreased there, he said.

Oxnard Police Department spokesman David Keith said crime has dropped about 40% in the months since a storefront police station was established in La Colonia last fall. But the area still has the city’s highest incidence of robberies, more than double any other neighborhood, he said.

“And of course robberies are what pizza delivery people are most concerned about,” Keith said.

Oxnard’s Simons said he did not know if the city was investigating the delivery practices of other pizza parlors. Several pizza sellers contacted Tuesday, including Domino’s and Double Deal, said they have no restrictions on delivery areas anywhere in Ventura County.

But Topper’s Pizza Place, with two shops in Oxnard, said it routinely rejects deliveries to La Colonia.

“We do it for the safety of our drivers,” said a Topper’s manager, who declined to give her name.

The National Assn. of Pizza Operators does not advise its 8,000 members on when they should reject delivery service, said Executive Director Gerry Durnell. But he said serious crimes against drivers, including assault, rape and robbery, are on the rise nationwide.

Individual business owners often choose to make employee safety a priority, he said.

“Drivers shouldn’t be subject to crime risks just because they put on a uniform and hold a pizza box,” Durnell said. “It boils down to common sense and protecting the people that work for you.”

Herrera, who works as an administrative secretary at the South Coast Area Transit office on 3rd Street, said she and work colleagues decided to call Pizza Hut last month after the company mailed discount coupons to the office.

“The thing is they solicited our business, and then turned us down,” she said. “I was shocked.”

She said her husband had not gotten any complaints about Pizza Hut until she brought it to his attention. Still, she said, it wasn’t a case of her taking advantage of her husband’s political influence.

“Even if he hadn’t been on the council, I feel that I would have brought it to the city’s attention,” she said. “I’m watchful for those kinds of things.”

Just two weeks ago on a train trip, Herrera said, she heard an Amtrak conductor announce the next stop as: “Oxnard, the smelly city.” She reported the remark to Mayor Manuel Lopez and Councilman Mike Plisky, who urged her to write a letter to Amtrak.

An Amtrak spokesman said Tuesday he had not heard about the incident and could not respond until it was investigated.

Her husband had a different reaction to her report, Mrs. Herrera said.

“He said, ‘There you go complaining again,’ ” she said.