Marzano owner Manna Tekie says repeated incidents have tested the limits of—but not broken—her will to remain on Park Boulevard.
This story was produced in partnership with Oakland Voices as part of a first-person series examining public safety and related issues in Oakland, with support from the American Press Institute.
I’ve been here at Marzano as an owner for the past eight years but I’ve worked in this very restaurant on Park Boulevard for 15 years.
On the morning of Sept. 15, I was sort of expecting the call. I was here the night before and as I was closing up, I heard a noise, which prompted me to look out the window. I saw someone casing the business across the street — flashlight, backpack, ski mask — and anytime that happens I know somebody’s business is going to get broken into. So, unfortunately, it wasn’t a surprise. When I got that call in the morning from my alarm company, I knew I was one of them.
I had to get up and get dressed and come in, and all I did was pray on the way here that the damage wasn’t great. I was grateful that no one was here at the time, and I knew that no one had gotten hurt. I was like, “Just let it be the broken glass and nothing else.” But when I got here, I knew it wasn’t that.
It was gut-wrenching. It was scary. I had this hopeless feeling because it was the first time we’d experienced three break-ins back to back in the same year. The first two times, we only sustained property damage, not stolen goods. This time, two safes were broken into. One was taken completely and the other one they sledgehammered here, opened it, realized there was nothing of value for them, and left it out in the street.
Neighbors were standing outside when I arrived. “We heard it.” “We called 911.” “We saw them. “I’m sorry this happened.” “Can I help you clean up?” This was the first time where the cops were called after an incident at our restaurant and they arrived in a somewhat timely manner. I have the community to thank for that. Because it’s not the alarm company calling that got them here. It’s the number of people who paid attention to what was happening and there were multiple calls made.
The officer was still there, and I said to him, “Hey, why don’t you go after them? You saw them.” He said, “I can’t chase them. There is a no-chase policy here in Oakland.” Mind you, it was only one officer — one car, one person — and [the robbers] had multiple cars on the other side of the street. They had come down the hill and gotten a few stores in Montclair, some on Leimert, and then us.
A construction crew was working on the building next door and when they heard the robbers come, they thought they were coming for their tools. So they hid on the roof and videotaped it. You can see the officer pulling up and you can see the robbers. After us, they hit the cafe across the street, and they were pulling out from there and loading up just as the officer arrived.
My initial thought was that I’m grateful no one was here. The second was, I don’t know how much longer we can continue to do this. We’re a neighborhood restaurant. I love this community. I feel love from the community. We’ve had to experience so many different hurdles, like pandemic inflation, and we still stay sensitive to the neighborhood pricing, so our margins are not amazing. Then you have these incidents happen and you’re instantly faced with, “Why do I continue to do this business in this town?”
So that’s what was going through my mind: Is the love for my community enough? Do I stick around? And if I stick around, I still have to feed my family. It’s a for-profit business and if my profit is being given away to a thief, what’s my incentive to stick around?
We have insurance, but it’s a hurdle. I’m still going through it, and it’s been over three months. They will reimburse me eventually but then my premium is going to go up. You’re discouraged from filing for insurance because you pay your deductible and then your premium goes up, so ultimately you end up paying for it even more. And there are other costs. This time for me it was big because two safes were stolen. My server tips were stolen, so it was imperative this time that I file a claim. I’ve had to absorb it a couple of times in the past, but this time I’m trying not to.
What’s next? I want to stay. But I also want to see change. I want accountability, I want our city leaders to step up and let us know that they have our back. That would be a reason to stay. I don’t want to give up, and it makes me sad because I feel like that’s the easiest thing to do. But then what? I move on to the next city and who’s to say that it won’t happen there? I can’t. I don’t want to run away.
If I did, the impact would be one more storefront going dark, right? But it’s more than that because it’s not as simple as it sounds — that we’re a business that provides food and drinks and nothing more than that. We’re a community space. This is where the kids come for a pizza and ice cream on a Friday with their family. This is where teachers gather after a long week and decompress. This is where I’ve seen kids grow up and go to college in the last 15 years, and the first thing they tell me when they come home for Thanksgiving or Christmas is, “It’s got to be the first place we visit.” That tells me that there is an impact our restaurant has on this community, and if we leave, people are losing community.
Source :https://oaklandside.org/
