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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

#181

Post by ryanmonroe »

treehau5 wrote: post #172
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…

> There are some issues with McDonalds, but it is a pleasant user experience. That's interesting, given that McDonalds purposefully designs it's restaurants to get customers in and out as quick as possible. The chairs are hard, uncomfortable plastic, the music is annoying, and the dining room is always set to some arctic temperature.

Depends on the location. Many McDonald's have quite comfortable seating, like this http://www.giotile.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/McDonalds-... .

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

#182

Post by pc86 »

zepto wrote: post #134
smokey_the_bear wrote: post #122

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We take them approximately once a month.

How often would you go without the stigma?

Do you feel good about berating someone on the internet for going to McDonald's?

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

#183

Post by cm2012 »

brianwawok wrote: post #111
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…

> 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. Sounds like a false dichotomy. Why not prepare actual healthy food, and not 'slapped together kids meal' ?

McDonald's has some healthy options, wraps, salads, etc. They are a lot less popular though.

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

#184

Post by cm2012 »

jernfrost wrote: post #166
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…

Hey I like going to McDonalds with the kids now and then too. But if this is the only nice place to go where you live I find that truly sad. I love taking my kids out eating but my favorite places are different Italian restaurants. Some area really good at making thin Italian pizza and other are really good with the pasta.

You can hang out at McDonalds for a while and have room to stretch, not true at sit-down establishments.

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

#185

Post by theoh »

appleflaxen wrote: post #99
andrewclunn wrote: post #72

I can't tell if this is sponsored content or not...

I'm not sure why you are being downvoted; I think it's a great question.

No sponsored content would mention the likelihood of readers sneering at the sponsor in the headline.

The Guardian is a reputable paper, although, barring the views of a few commentators like Aditya Chakrabortty, it tends to have a complacent middle-class outlook on things.

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

#186

Post by Programmatic »

ciaranm wrote: post #156
tobltobs wrote: post #110

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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!

> It's not the be-all or end-all, but if you're consuming less than you use, you'll lose weight.

I'm not really weighing in on one side or the other in terms of the overall argument, but unfortunately metabolisms are rather sneaky. Calories in < calories out = weight loss sounds nice, but unfortunately calories out is a moving target in that your metabolism will ratchet down and be more efficient and/or consume muscle if calories in is insufficient.

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

#187

Post by j2kun »

jernfrost wrote: post #157

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 che…

In the article it seems like most people go for the coffee. Is their coffee as bad as their food, healthwise?

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

#188

Post by gruez »

iammyIP wrote: post #179

The pictures look pretty sad and the mc donalds house is filled with a cloud of sugary sweetness. Kids may like it but if one is older and still likes it, i would assume that this person either got addicted to this in some form or simply has the stomach and tastebuds similar to a dog (which is nothing to be ashamed of).

Does that mean dog treats are super sweet and salty?

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

#189

Post by ArtDev »

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 appears to be no similarity better domestic and foreign McDonalds. Foreign McDonalds have much fresher better tasting food. They can't cut corners like they do in the US.

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

#190

Post by soundwave106 »

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…

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2012/09/18/who-r...

One issue with talking about United States social services in this manner is that there is a clear bias towards the elderly and the disabled (about 3/4 of recipients) instead of merely the impoverished (about 1/4 of recipients). Of the assistance to the impoverished, I'd wager that a huge chunk of that 25% is Medicaid.

If there is indeed a problem with our social benefit programs, it has very little to do with these poor neighborhoods with McDonalds community centers. Instead, it will have everything to do with a society that is rapidly aging (mainly due to the demographics of the "baby boom"), the pay-as-you-go setup of Social Security, and perhaps our unwillingness to control medical costs that might strangle Medicare and Medicaid.

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