This Subway Restaurant in Downtown Oakland has something I’ve never seen before: bulletproof glass. It’s a relatively new addition, given that I’ve visited the retail restaurant on Broadway near 14th Street before, earlier this year. It’s also a shocking, and impersonal, addition.
The sandwich clerk said to me that “nothing’s happened, yet,” when I asked if they had been robbed. And it seems, at first glance, like too much until you consider that some Downtown Oakland businesses, and particularly along Broadway, have had their windows smashed as part of protests that, at one stretch of time, seemed endless.
But the bullet proof glass, combined with the poor service of the particular sandwich makers (they don’t say hello when you walk in, and seem to take their time getting to you) has to make for lower sales volume to some degree.
Also, the Subway Restaurant isn’t the only place around to buy food. The Burger King is just a short walk away on 13th and Broadway, and lacks the bulletproof glass. There’s a Mexican restaurant around the corner on 13th, too, and without the bulletproof glass. And there’s the new Tribune Tavern on 13th and Franklin, and without the bulletproof glass.
All of these establishments have weathered the Oakland protest and crime storm well.
Stay tuned.