Thinking of calling to have a pizza delivered from a local pizza establishment? Depending on your address, you may have trouble finding one willing to deliver to your neighborhood.

The practice known as “redlining,” “blacklisting” or “limited delivery” is used by pizza delivery restaurants nationwide. In an effort to protect their drivers, delivering restaurants are marking “no-delivery” zones in certain high-crime areas.

Denise Spratt, a senior in agricultural communications, said she wants to know why the neighborhoods pinpointed for no delivery service are predominantly populated by African Americans. She wonders, coincidental or discriminatory? She wants answers.

“Pizza delivery restaurants are discriminating against low-income families and African-American communities just because they want to order a pizza,” Spratt said. “They even call it ‘blacklisting.’ ”

Spratt first became aware and angered by the policy while at a friend’s house on East Eighth Street when Adriatico’s Pizza refused her delivery.

“They told me that I would have to walk to High Street to get my pizza and that was the only way that they would deliver,” Spratt said.

Spratt referred to High Street as the “Great Divide” after conducting an experiment on the delivery system.

“I walked across High Street that same night to my house on the corner of West Ninth Street and Worthington and called up Adriatico’s again,” Spratt said. “This time they were happy to deliver to me which made me think of High Street as the “Great Divide” because it divides the neighborhoods. East (of High Street) is bad and west is good.”

Ali Bahaein, the manager of Adriatico’s Pizza said not delivering to certain areas has nothing to do with discrimination and everything to do with the efficiency of running a business.

“We did an extensive study of where our business comes from and if you were to make our delivery area into a square block, 99.5 percent of our business comes from three-fourths of the block,” Bahaein said. “So we cut out the area that we weren’t getting much business from to cut back on payroll and to improve efficiency.”

Spratt said that she is not buying the explanation.

“The money the restaurant receives from African-American communities is just as good as the money they receive from other areas,” Spratt said.

The situation between Spratt and Adriatico’s Pizza was not the first to raise issue with the practice of limited delivery.

In June 2000 a complaint was made to the U.S. Department of Justice about Domino’s Pizza’s policy of providing only limited pizza delivery in geographical areas. The complaint was that the policy had a direct discriminatory effect on blacks.

Domino’s Pizza reached an agreement with the Department of Justice by changing its national delivery policy and laying out clear written guidelines of the factors that would chart out the no-delivery zones. The agreement was made under the federal Civil Rights Act of 1964 that provides that all citizens, regardless of their race, color, religion or national origin, are entitled to the goods, services and accommodations provided by public accommodations, which include restaurants.

“The new delivery policy ensures that decisions on delivery limitations will be based on the legitimate concern for the safety of Domino’s employees and not on the racial composition of a neighborhood,” said Bill Lann Lee, the acting assistant attorney general for Civil Rights.

Holly Ryan, the public relations manager for Domino’s Pizza, said the limited delivery practice is legitimate after many instances throughout the years of robberies and even the murder of a delivery employee in Schenectady, N.Y.

“Limited delivery for the safety of our drivers is based on crime statistics from police reports and the areas are revisited every year,” Ryan said. “Some areas get worse and others get better. Sometimes it isn’t even an area. It could be one segment of a building or a one-way street that dead-ends.”

Brad Fischer, the general manager of a local Domino’s Pizza, said the company does not deliver anywhere between 11th Street and Fifth Street, east of High Street.

“It is where all the crime and problems come from,” Fischer said. “I don’t care who it is. I don’t want to be robbed. We don’t do it because of race. I have more fear of sending my drivers down there than of getting sued.”

Spratt said better alternatives to banning delivery to places should be made.

“I know people are scared but they shouldn’t take it out on the law-abiding citizens in these communities,” Spratt said. “They should provide cell phones to all their drivers so that if they feel uncomfortable they could call the customer and request that they come out to get their pizza.”

Spratt also suggested properly training the drivers by giving them steps to follow in case of an emergency.

As of now, King’s Pizza and Ohio State Pizza are the only two pizza places delivering anywhere in the campus area.