4 ms·

While it's a heartbreaking article and a nice write-up on the importance of McDonalds as a community space, I think the other core takeaways here are these: poo

While it's a heartbreaking article and a nice write-up on the importance of McDonalds as a community space, I think the other core takeaways here are these: poor people are getting no resources to help them with their mental health, a place to live, or even a volunteer to talk to; franchise businesses are doing more for some of these people than the government-provided services. Betty Ryder from this article is a big example. You can tell she has a place to stay in at night but what about her days? It's not like days are much friendlier to homeless people when it's cold out and the fact that the employees are nice enough to not kick her out even though many would... it's both life-affirming and incredibly sad. How many Bettys is the system letting down, both in my country and the USA? How many of them depend completely on the manager of their local McDonalds not being a jerk?

ehnto 7y ago
Many small towns used to have drop-in centers, which acted like community centers where people could spend their day. Public Houses used to fulfill this need as well, but evolved into commercial "pubs" for drinking. Of course the various churches often still fill in parts of the role of community centers in many areas. As everything gets commercialized and privatized, community can become a lower priority and thus taking care of people who don't pay for anything is no longer something those centers do. Eventually many towns ended up with nothing public at all, and it sounds like McDonalds is filling the need that these places used to do. An interesting microcosm of this issue is public outdoor seating out the front of businesses being introduced in some city squares. The seats are public, provided by the city, yet because of their positioning it's easy to mistake that they are for the business. When people think the seats are for businesses, they don't feel comfortable utilizing the space unless they're paying the business. Would you go to a pub without buying a beer? Probably not, so they're no longer Public Houses for the public, and not everywhere has a place that's filled in the need. Frankly, I think communities are scared of who would show up, and that's precisely the problem. We have cordoned off and alienated our communities into The Paying and The Poor. You don't get to be part of the community unless you're the former.

ehnto 7y ago

Many small towns used to have drop-in centers, which acted like community centers where people could spend their day. Public Houses used to fulfill this need as well, but evolved into commercial "pubs" for drinking. Of course the various churches often still fill in parts of the role of community centers in many areas. As everything gets commercialized and privatized, community can become a lower priority and thus taking care of people who don't pay for anything is no longer something those centers do. Eventually many towns ended up with nothing public at all, and it sounds like McDonalds is filling the need that these places used to do. An interesting microcosm of this issue is public outdoor seating out the front of businesses being introduced in some city squares. The seats are public, provided by the city, yet because of their positioning it's easy to mistake that they are for the business. When people think the seats are for businesses, they don't feel comfortable utilizing the space unless they're paying the business. Would you go to a pub without buying a beer? Probably not, so they're no longer Public Houses for the public, and not everywhere has a place that's filled in the need. Frankly, I think communities are scared of who would show up, and that's precisely the problem. We have cordoned off and alienated our communities into The Paying and The Poor. You don't get to be part of the community unless you're the former.