A Berkeley business owner is picking up the pieces and pondering the future after his popular pizza shop was hit by vandals again. Velena Jones reports.
A Berkeley business owner is picking up the pieces and pondering the future after his popular pizza shop was hit by vandals again.
For 14 years, Emilia’s Pizzeria has taken pride in baking Berkeley pies.
Small business owners often spend time worrying about the cost of supplies and rent but Emilia’s owner Keith Freilich says he now has to budget for the cost of damage done by vandals.
On Wednesday morning, Freilich woke up to police telling him someone has smashed in the front window of his business and it’s not the first time this has happened.
“It’s obviously very frustrating, very expensive to fix. My lease is up in a year and it does make me wonder, if this is still the right place to be or not?” he said.
The popular pizzeria, which was set to be featured in a food blog this week, has been vandalized twice in just over two years, both times someone shattered the store's window. But took nothing.
That vandalism is an instant $1,000 bill for Freilich.
The price of his insurance deductible and then there's the concern about insurance premiums going up.
“For the first ten years the only thing I had happen to me is I got my tip jar stolen a couple times but the last couple of years the previous incident where my window got smashed, my neighbor got her window smashed maybe a year ago,” Freilich said.
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Crime is up by 13% in Berkeley from last year, including a 9% increase in thefts and double-digit increases in burglaries and stolen vehicles.
Nearby business owner Shiea Kumer hasn’t been a target of crime in nearly 10 years. But he says mental health issues are increasing in the area. Last month, a video showed a woman throwing a cone at his car and ripping off his license plate unprovoked.
“I see more people visiting outside homeless, those are people. They need more shelter maybe. That is main concern,” he said.
The pizzeria who had to delay orders Wednesday due to the cleanup and Freilich hopes this is the last time they have to put up plywood.
“I just got to weather the storm for now and hope things get better,” he said.
