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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

#151

Post by astrange »

bitwize wrote: post #123
bluedino wrote: post #12

Aren't Japanese McDonald's a popular hangout for teenagers?

When I was in Osaka, the McDonald's had a blockbusting line going into it. The food was, near as I can tell, identical to the American locations -- but the place was spacious, clean, and staffed mostly by the sort of mousy-voiced girls Japan seems to produce in legion strength. And you get a Handi-Wipe to clean up with after your meal.

It's a popular place to go just to get coffee. (Their coffee is pretty okay in the US too.)

I feel like I remember totally offending a French guy by suggesting we do this once.

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

#152

Post by rhizome »

_RPM wrote: post #34
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…

It sounds like you had a great childhood. My parents weren't really active with my academics, so that carried over with until it was time for college. Luckily I'll be a first generation college graduate in December.

Congratulations! Please do more with that accomplishment than my Dad did, which was apparently to think, "I did it on my own, so you should be able to, too." Please try to pass your college-graduation skills to the next generation and your peers. :)

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

#153

Post by Retric »

stcredzero wrote: post #132
Retric wrote: post #121

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can find deeply troubling things about all cultures. White, black, brown, rich, poor, middle class, young, old, doctors, brick layers, or welfare recipients. Atheists, Christians, Muslims, Jews, Hindus, and Buddhists all have beliefs that seem wrong to people both inside and outside of those groups. Pretending groups are somehow above criticism is more about manners than fact. PS: I have watched several people be…

People need to be aware of the distinction between criticizing cultural/sub-cultural mores/ideologies and criticizing individuals. In the US, the two seem to get very often confused. Individuals are individuals. Sub-cultural mores are products (distortions) of the media. The two are not the same. However, the latter seems to have tremendous power in framing public debate.

Cultures are frameworks for viewing the world. Some early anti drug adds actually backfired and promoted drug use as some people started to associate 'cool kids' and drugs. Some groups associate 'Long hours' with hard work and dedication, others view them as a sign your not working hard enough.

Not that everyone in a group identifies with every assumption of that group, but these things are more complex than simply being shaped by the all powerful media.

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

#154

Post by inDigiNeous »

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…

Probably better than a real meal made at an restaraunt ? Are you trolling ? Do you know how much preservatives and sugar goes into the food at McDonalds ?

See this video for an idea how long the food at McDonalds takes to rot because of these artificial ingredients:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8uHxRwQqWFo

Also have fun time knowing that each time you visit McDonalds, you are supporting the slavery and killing of intelligent animals just to slap together a cheap as possible meal.

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

#155

Post by Rudism »

A few years ago my wife and I were coming back from a road trip to visit some friends and family in Canada, and we crossed back into the US at the Detroit/Windsor crossing. We were basically running on fumes by the time we got through the border, so drove around the Detroit side a bit in search of a gas station (it took a while to find one that wasn't clearly abandoned or in complete shambles).

One thing I noticed is that among all of the boarded-up, graffiti-strewn buildings, homeless people sleeping in the gutters, abandoned houses and cars, the one shining beacon of normalcy was the McDonalds. The building was in perfect condition, the lot was clean, lights were on--it was very striking in contrast to the almost post-apocalyptic looking area of the city that surrounded it.

I can totally understand why such a place would naturally attract people as a place to congregate in a neighborhood as poor as that one. Inexpensive food plus a building that not only still functions as shelter, but has electricity, bathrooms, heat/air conditioning--all things that you may very well not have at home (assuming you even have a home).

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

#156

Post by ciaranm »

tobltobs wrote: post #110
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…

Or he gets downvoted because he thinks healthy food has something to do with calorie counting or those nutritional information printed on the package.

Healthy food does have something to do with the amount of calories it contains. It's not the be-all or end-all, but if you're consuming less than you use, you'll lose weight.

Weight is by far one of the largest risk factors for a huge number of medical conditions and problems, so I'd be amazed to hear how calories/nutritional content of food isn't related to health!

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

#157

Post by jernfrost »

Bizarre how the article seems to present this as a hopeful and positive thing about McDonalds.

To me it is just another indicator of how broken American society is. A fast food place serving terrible and unhealthy food is becoming a gathering place for poor people who are probably the ones most in need of a healthier and better lifestyle.

It is also a sad reminder of how society has gone so utterly wrong when the cheapest food is the absolutely worst food.

This is of course not McDonalds fault, but society has allowed huge chains pushing cheap unhealthy food to the masses flourish. It isn't just about the food, but the sort of cultural wasteland a place like McDonalds is. Everything mass produced and equal everywhere. A country priding itself in diversity is drowning in homogeneity.

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

#158

Post by pizza234 »

greenspot wrote: post #102

McDonalds is the master in orchestrating food. I love McDonalds and I think their hamburger is the best hamburger, their french fries are the best and all the other menu options have this typical McDonalds design--everything, every single piece and ingredient is meticulously thought through and the final dish has a perfect taste. The taste you get for the carb in-take is unmatched. It's cool to hate McDonalds, I know…

> It's cool to hate McDonalds, I know and I don't care. All my friends would never take their kids to McDonalds. They even don't take their kids to the movies. This is our generation nowadays, all they want is an 'organic', 'low fat' and 'please don't hurt' sticker on their overpriced crap food without having a clue how nutrition really works. Especially here in Europe people position themselves as heathly when hating McDonalds.

It's not that it's "cool to hate"; it's simply that some people see a connection between 30%+ of the population being obese, and a certain type of nutrition, of whom McDonald is [seen as] the poster child.

Of course, at the other end of the spectrum some will "Blame it on the genes©", and that's fair, but all in all it is reasonable (which is different from "arguable") to have a "strong dislike", not "cool".

Anecdote is not evidence; on top of that, each and everyone is positively (oh, and subjectively) certain he has has a healthy lifestyle.

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

#159

Post by kw71 »

FunctionalMan wrote: post #90
ablation wrote: post #78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

I saw your "dead" comment, thought it was valuable. Your previous comments didn't appear to be antisocial so I vouched it.

Your karma went up since then so apparently some people agree.

You're still flagged for whatever reason, so whatever you write will still be invisible until someone using showdead comes along and decides it shouldn't be hidden.

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

#160

Post by wutbrodo »

tobltobs wrote: post #103
RankingMember wrote: post #55

I remember driving through a Native American reservation in the Southwest and stopping at a McDonald's after seeing not much of anything for miles and miles. I walked in and it was like everyone in the reservation was there hanging out it was so alive with conversation and activity. I'm not a McDonald's fan, but I'm glad they exist to serve purposes like that, because I'm not sure where else the people in that one wo…

The interesting question is, if this is a sign for an achievement of McDonalds or a failure of the society?

I wish the article had expanded on the unsuitability of community centers due to their bureaucracy. It just mentions it in a couple of words and never elaborates. It seems like it should be easy to provide just a simple public space with basic amenities, without even any activities (which is the low bar set by McDonald's). The big exception of course being that food isn't served, but running a little competent sandwich shop or something is far from impossible (every bus and train station I've been too manages that).
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