Richmond District diner owner pleads for change after antique cash register stolen
The owner of a beloved diner in San Francisco's Richmond District is calling for changes in the city's leadership after a piece of his restaurant's history was stolen.
"You know, we're not crying for help. We're just asking for change," said Roozbeh Falahati, who owns the restaurant.
The restaurant has been in his family since the 1970s. After it was broken into over the weekend -- the fourth burglary in the past two years -- he put up a sign outside the diner.
"Another break-in this morning. Stole our antique cash register," the sign written in chalk read. "Change the leadership in our city. VOTE."
The other side read: "Vote for a better San Francisco."
Falahati says this break-in was a tipping point for him. Even though the thieves didn't get away with any money, they got away with an item worth an incredible amount of sentimental value: an antique cash register.
"It's been here since 1968 -- it hasn't moved from this spot. It's been in our family for the past 50 years. It has sentimental value to us and our customers," said Falahati.
By putting up the sign, he hoped to encourage people to stop, think, and understand that their voices matter when hoping to create change.
San Francisco resident Christen Alqueza weighed in and suggested a solution to be a piece of the city's approach to this complex issue.
"I would say, more social support programs for folks who are on the brink or feel like they have no choice and turn to committing crimes," she said.
"I feel like the break-ins are being used as like, a tool to ask for more law enforcement or more police presence in the area which I don't think will be that helpful."
Falahati believes if the city can address problems in other neighborhoods, it will benefit his neighborhood.
"The drug problem causes these types of thefts to continue. But it also causes police resources to be pulled out of the safer neighborhoods like the Inner Richmond, Outer Richmond, Sunset District, so they can attend to the issues going down in the Tenderloin and surrounding areas," he said.
Since the break-in, Falahati says elected officials and those running for office have reached out to him.
"We don't have any particular opinion of who should run or who should be the next leader or leaders of this city. What we do want is to have political leaders that can work together," he said.
"If you want to have any type of real change, you have to have leadership that can work together. Right now, they can't."
Despite the situation, Falahati doesn't have plans to leave. He says business has been good since he re-opened two years ago.
"We're not a neighborhood that is in crisis. We're a neighborhood that is trying to prevent things from getting worse. We want to keep things on the right track," he said.
"Inner Richmond has been great and remains great. It's the rest of the city that we're concerned about, and we just don't want this to continue to spread."
Crime overall in the Richmond District is down year-over-year, by 44.9%, per SFPD data. However, the data shows burglaries are down about 5% year-over-year.
San Francisco police have continued to highlight their efforts in cracking down on similar break-ins at businesses, most recently reporting 61 arrests during a roughly two-month anti-retail theft operation that ended in late July.
The Clement Street Merchants Association issued the following statement regarding break-in and vandalism in the neighborhood:
"Clement Street Merchants Association is working with the affected merchants directly and is acting as a liaison in providing direct resources from the City such as access to vandalism and other small business grants and loss prevention assistance. We have been working closely with Richmond PD Captain Chris Canning, Supervisor Connie Chan's office, and our SFPD Neighborhood Ambassadors to find new ways to tackle this very important issue. In the Richmond, all our small businesses work closely together and look out for each other—by providing time-stamped photo and video footage to assist Richmond PD, and discussing the issue at our merchants meetings. As we are a merchants association made up of small business owners, we are not a crime prevention organization, and we have been actively calling on our Richmond PD and Mayor Breed's office for additional resources to continue to keep our small businesses safe and open."
