Fearful residents cry for change at Willows market Fearful residents cry for change at Willows market (February 09, 2005)

** After armed robberies, La Hacienda Market promises safety measures, but neighbors object to look of bullet-proof glass.

By Rebecca Wallace

Almanac Staff Writer

Tastes and ingredients you don't always find in mainstream grocery stores abound at La Hacienda Market.

There are guava candies, dried mango with chile powder, and flour for making churros -- long donuts with sugar and cinnamon. Tortillas of every size and variety fill one section, and across the way are cans of jalapeno peppers the size of footstools.

For fans of Mexican food, this is a cornucopia. La Hacienda attracts Hispanic customers from all over, and it's also a neighborhood stop for many residents here in the Willows area of Menlo Park.

Lately, though, some far less welcome visitors have paid calls. The market has had four armed robberies since September 2003. Most recently, five men with bandanas over their faces and handguns robbed the market on January 22, police said. No injuries were reported, but it was the last straw for fearful neighbors.

"It's a strong community, the Willows. There are a lot of families with young children," resident Christine Franco said. "We're all afraid and we want it to stop."

Ms. Franco was one of the organizers of a community meeting on January 31 that attracted some 50 people, including Menlo Park Police Chief Chris Boyd and City Councilwoman Kelly Fergusson, who lives nearby.

Upset residents called for changes such as installing better outside lighting at the market and taking down signs obscuring part of the front window, said Ms. Fergusson, who said she was speaking as a neighborhood activist.

"It's time for the city to step up to work in a cooperative and intense way with the neighbors and the market," she said. "The city has done very little."

Resident Steve Lipman, who shops at La Hacienda with his toddler, also made suggestions in an e-mail to the council.

"It is a wonderful neighborhood market -- clean, polite staff, good food, culturally diverse, reasonably priced, and convenient," he wrote, adding, "I imagine there are some effective deterrent and preventative measures that could easily be employed," suggesting video cameras, an alarm system and security guards.

Uriel Chavez, CFO of La Hacienda Markets, was also on hand at the meeting. He told the Almanac later that he shares the worries and that he's been working with Chief Boyd to upgrade safety.

"We feel very fortunate to be in a neighborhood where the residents play an active role," he wrote in an e-mail. "It was a very frightening experience to those who were in the situation and incredibly alarming to those who are in the area."

Mr. Chavez said some neighbors insisted that the robberies were the fault of La Hacienda management, but added that most are "extremely sympathetic."

As a next step, Mr. Chavez said he plans to upgrade the video surveillance system, add more lighting, and do some repaving and landscaping. He said he will take other steps that he declined to discuss for security reasons.

Since he took over the market in 2001 -- the site has housed a market for decades -- Mr. Chavez has also made improvements, such as replacing flooring and putting in a new kitchen, he said.
Check-cashing

Another planned step involves the most controversial aspect of La Hacienda: its check-cashing counter.

Neighbors have voiced concern that the operation attracts an undesirable element and has a risky location just inside the front door. Mr. Chavez said he plans to turn the counter into an enclosed office area with bullet-proof glass windows.

But Ms. Fergusson said many neighbors bristled at the idea of having bullet-proof glass the first thing you see when you walk in the door.

"This is an upscale, residential neighborhood," she said. "People would prefer to see the owners move it (the counter) to the back of the store, where it's unobtrusive, so it doesn't affect the tone of the neighborhood."

Other residents have questioned whether the market as a whole fits into the Willows. An anonymous caller to the Almanac left a voice-mail message on January 24 saying: "It really doesn't belong in the neighborhood. It belongs on El Camino."

When asked whether racial fear was a factor in concerns about La Hacienda, meeting organizer Christine Franco said: "It didn't come up at the meeting. No racial fear came up at all."
Limited city power

While City Attorney Bill McClure said the La Hacienda management has been cooperative, he said the city cannot require them to put in security upgrades.

"We can encourage them, the neighbors can put pressure on them to do so, and ultimately there's economic pressure in the form of lost cash and possible cancellation of insurance," he said.

At the February 1 council meeting, Ms. Fergusson suggested another step: She asked city staff to find out the cost of hiring more police officers.

Chief Boyd said that "a higher visibility of officers would make people feel more comfortable," but that he believes his department is adequately staffed.

The top priority now, he said, is catching the robbery suspects. January's suspects may also be responsible for other robberies in the Bay Area, so Menlo Park police are working with other cities, he said.

Chief Boyd said that there are "weaknesses" in La Hacienda's security, but he declined to be specific. As for enclosing the check-cashing area with bullet-proof glass, he supports it.

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