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In poor neighborhoods, McDonald’s have become de-facto community centers

theguardian.com

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Re: In poor neighborhoods, McDonald’s have become de-facto community centers

#81

Post by tompetry »

smokey_the_bear wrote: post #6

McDonalds is the only restaurant I enjoy eating at with my 2 and 3 year olds. Every other restaurant is a slog to get through the meal. Honestly I'd eat there more often if it weren't for the social stigma of it. (I live in Berkeley). I am pretty sure the cheeseburger, apple slices, and chocolate milk are not much worse, and probably better, than the typical fare on a slapped together kids meal. When I was a kid, my…

> When I was a kid, my dad would take me to the local McDonalds to do math, several times a week. They'd let us sit there ordering nothing but sodas in a comfy booth for hours. These are some of my fondest childhood memories.

This made me smile, as my dad and I did the exact same thing. He would get coffee and I would get eggs and hashbrowns before we set out on the days errands, and I remember doing long division problems with crayons for fun. I hadn't thought of those days in a very long time, thank you :)

Re: In poor neighborhoods, McDonald’s have become de-facto community centers

#82

Post by noonespecial »

stevecalifornia wrote: post #46

I recently went to a McDonald's in Austria. I was blown away by how they were going exactly for the community center vibe. There was a bar with four or five internet connected tablets a half-basketball court next to the jungle gym and patio seating like you'd find at an upscale resteraunt. It also had a dedicated coffee and desert bar. Also, the cash registers were gone and in their place were four huge touchscreens…

There are "specialty" McD's in the US, they are just rare. This one springs to mind:

http://www.yelp.com/biz/mcdonalds-orlando-10

Re: In poor neighborhoods, McDonald’s have become de-facto community centers

#83

Post by mac01021 »

boona wrote: post #43
darpa_escapee wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's something incredibly American about a multibillion dollar fast-food corporation that's unwittingly found itself as the gathering place for those abandoned by a society that has gutted and underfunded social services.

>gutted and underfunded social services The US spends so much, that social security and medicare combined have nearly 33 trillion dollars in unfunded liabilities. To give you a sense of scale, that's half of the world's gdp. In terms of taxes, there are 4 payees for every beneficiary and it's estimated that by 2030 that number will be 2 to 1. When you sift through all the propaganda, America is financially imploding…

The washington post's take on this same unfunded-liabilities thing:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/fact-checker/wp/2013/10/...

Also, don't "payee" and "beneficiary" mean the same thing? Should the article have used "payer" instead of "payee"?

Re: In poor neighborhoods, McDonald’s have become de-facto community centers

#84

Post by noahth »

tetromino_ wrote: post #49
smokey_the_bear wrote: post #6

McDonalds is the only restaurant I enjoy eating at with my 2 and 3 year olds. Every other restaurant is a slog to get through the meal. Honestly I'd eat there more often if it weren't for the social stigma of it. (I live in Berkeley). I am pretty sure the cheeseburger, apple slices, and chocolate milk are not much worse, and probably better, than the typical fare on a slapped together kids meal. When I was a kid, my…

Your kids are your kids and it's your choice how to raise them given your financial and time constraints, but teaching a 3-year-old to associate comfort and happiness with unhealthy food doesn't strike me as the wisest decision. When they are old enough and responsible enough for their bodies, they might decide on their own that they enjoy nicotine, corn syrup, salt, starch, and fry oil - but why bias them towards su…

an argument that assumes parenting is about always making the wisest decision is an argument that misunderstands the reality of parenthood

Re: In poor neighborhoods, McDonald’s have become de-facto community centers

#85

Post by intellegacy »

when I lived out of my car in SoCal, I wasn't familiar with starbucks yet and so I basically used McDonalds as my table/office/wi-fi/hangout spot for the first month.

I have a soft spot for McDonalds despite what its critics may say. It's an inclusive place which accepts everyone: homeless, indigent, wealthy, kids, adults. It is cheap, unpretentious, and welcoming.

That said, this was a special McDonalds in Pasadena that was clean, had numerous power outlets, and was exceptionally well-run. The McDonalds in the rest of LA were disgusting in comparison and refused to provide outlets, presumably to keep out homeless.

I eventually switched to Starbucks because starbucks always has outlets, the coffee was slightly better (and had more options) and the wifi was significantly faster

Re: In poor neighborhoods, McDonald’s have become de-facto community centers

#86

Post by bluedino »

jrbapna wrote: post #66
em500 wrote: post #3

And in rich neighborhoods, Starbucks?

You would think, but the internet speeds are an issue, which severly limits their ability to make them community spaces. At many starbucks in my neighborhood back home you can barely get a website to load. Those few that offer internet by Google, rather than AT&T, seem to be much better. Ive always wondered why they cant simply limit the time one can use the internet before making another purchase rather than capping…

Around here, Starbucks switched to Google (which isn't Google fiber, but whoever the cable provider is in the area) for 60-80mbs speeds. This was a HUGE improvement over the old Wayport internet that was delivered over a T1, and then DSL (3mb). I noticed that McDonalds as well as other companies all used Wayport and the slow speeds are unusable unless only a few people are on the wifi.

Re: In poor neighborhoods, McDonald’s have become de-facto community centers

#87

Post by msie »

boona wrote: post #43
darpa_escapee wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's something incredibly American about a multibillion dollar fast-food corporation that's unwittingly found itself as the gathering place for those abandoned by a society that has gutted and underfunded social services.

>gutted and underfunded social services The US spends so much, that social security and medicare combined have nearly 33 trillion dollars in unfunded liabilities. To give you a sense of scale, that's half of the world's gdp. In terms of taxes, there are 4 payees for every beneficiary and it's estimated that by 2030 that number will be 2 to 1. When you sift through all the propaganda, America is financially imploding…

Perhaps the funding for such services are not going as far as one would think.

Re: In poor neighborhoods, McDonald’s have become de-facto community centers

#88

Post by ericabiz »

CiPHPerCoder wrote: post #17

I personally avoid Chic-Fil-A because of their anti-LGBT and pro-religion values, but I'm glad to hear they're pleasant for children.

You might find this article interesting: http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2015/08/28/it-s-time-f...

> The company’s new foundation also ended nearly all of its donations to anti-LGBT organizations in 2012, with $25,390 to the Fellowship of Christian Athletes as the only potential sore point.

Re: In poor neighborhoods, McDonald’s have become de-facto community centers

#90

Post by FunctionalMan »

ablation wrote: post #78
ciaranm wrote: post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You're being downvoted because it's cool to hate on McDonald's, but I agree with you. From my experience in the UK, their menu is increasingly easy to find nutritional information for (the print it in big font on -all- of their packaging), and they offer alternatives for fries/sodas if you like. Much of the McDonald's menu is far healthier than 'real' restaurant equivalents, which use much more oil/salt because the i…

I think they're being downvoted because they're a new account with no submissions and no other comments bar this one, which looks a little... ah... suspicious?

I've had a bunch of comments, but I think new users are shadowbanned by default.
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