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I thought he was mostly saying the stores themselves are unsafe for workers and customers, and the perception of Chicago being dangerous makes people not want t

I thought he was mostly saying the stores themselves are unsafe for workers and customers, and the perception of Chicago being dangerous makes people not want to work at corporate. Plus the never-ending tax increases and general denigration of private business from the Mayor (although common in many major cities) which pushed out many other corporate headquarters for Miami and Austin. > “We have violent crime that’s happening in our restaurants … we’re seeing homelessness issues in our restaurants. We’re having drug overdoses that are happening in our restaurants,” he said. “So we see in our restaurants, every single day, what’s happening in society at large.” > “It’s more difficult today for me to convince a promising McDonald’s executive to relocate to Chicago from one of our other offices than it was just a few years ago,” he said. “It’s more difficult for me to recruit a new employee to McDonald’s, to join us in Chicago than it was in the past.” > And when it comes to returning to the office, he said, “one of the things that I hear from our employees [is] … ‘I’m not sure it’s safe to come downtown.’” > Kempczinski pointed to several high-profile corporate departures from the city, including Boeing, Caterpilllar and Citadel, which all recently announced plans to relocate their headquarters. He said that mayors and governors from other cities and states have reached out to McDonald’s to consider doing the same.

randomsearch 4y ago
This reads more like a list of America’s social problems than something specific to Chicago. It’s ironic that a big corporation complains about it, reminds me of tech companies criticising SF govt about the consequences of inequality in SF.
tptacek 4y ago
If misperceptions of Chicago are making it harder for McDonalds to recruit, he's not helping the situation by amplifying them. Certainly, violent crime is happening in McDonalds restaurants. There are McDonalds all over the place in the south and west sides of Chicago. I'm sure homelessness is a problem in all their restaurants. Note that he brought that up, because it's a tell: Chicago's crime problem has zero to do with homelessness (that might not be the case in other cities, but it isn't here.) If you don't have an actual solution for the impacts of redlining in Chicago, you don't have a crime solution. Chicago has tried everything short of that. It's broken up the major gangs; we got a nightmare of tiny little idiot gangs. It's flooded the zone in Englewood and Austin; you can suppress crime for a time, but it just squeezes into other neighborhoods.
- lelanthran 4y ago
  > If misperceptions of Chicago are making it harder for McDonalds to recruit, Are you saying that the crime he refers to is not as bad as he makes it seem?
  - tptacek 4y ago
    It's worse than he makes it seem in Lawndale, where nobody who works at McDonalds HQ lives, and it's much, much better than he makes it seem in the West Loop, where McDonalds HQ is.
    - lelanthran 4y ago
      > It's worse than he makes it seem in Lawndale, where nobody who works at McDonalds HQ lives, What does HQ have to do with his comments that the restaurants are dangerous? > empczinski said that McDonald's (MCD) restaurants in the city are suffering, > "We have violent crime that's happening in our restaurants ... we're seeing homelessness issues in our restaurants. We're having drug overdoses that are happening in our restaurants," he said. "So we see in our restaurants, every single day, what's happening in society at large." Sounds like he's addressing more than HQ in his assertions.
      - tptacek 4y ago
        His employees don't work in the restaurants. McDonalds is a franchise business.
        hollerith 4y ago
        About 5% of McDonald's locations are owned by the company: https://www.businessinsider.com/mcdonalds-is-raising-wages-but-only-in-company-owned-locations-2021-5 https://www.businessinsider.com/mcdonalds-is-raising-wages-b... I was unable in 5 minutes to find out how many of that 5% is in the Chicago area.
- prepend 4y ago

randomsearch 4y ago

This reads more like a list of America’s social problems than something specific to Chicago. It’s ironic that a big corporation complains about it, reminds me of tech companies criticising SF govt about the consequences of inequality in SF.

tptacek 4y ago

If misperceptions of Chicago are making it harder for McDonalds to recruit, he's not helping the situation by amplifying them. Certainly, violent crime is happening in McDonalds restaurants. There are McDonalds all over the place in the south and west sides of Chicago. I'm sure homelessness is a problem in all their restaurants. Note that he brought that up, because it's a tell: Chicago's crime problem has zero to do with homelessness (that might not be the case in other cities, but it isn't here.) If you don't have an actual solution for the impacts of redlining in Chicago, you don't have a crime solution. Chicago has tried everything short of that. It's broken up the major gangs; we got a nightmare of tiny little idiot gangs. It's flooded the zone in Englewood and Austin; you can suppress crime for a time, but it just squeezes into other neighborhoods.

lelanthran 4y ago
> If misperceptions of Chicago are making it harder for McDonalds to recruit, Are you saying that the crime he refers to is not as bad as he makes it seem?
- tptacek 4y ago
  It's worse than he makes it seem in Lawndale, where nobody who works at McDonalds HQ lives, and it's much, much better than he makes it seem in the West Loop, where McDonalds HQ is.
  - lelanthran 4y ago
    > It's worse than he makes it seem in Lawndale, where nobody who works at McDonalds HQ lives, What does HQ have to do with his comments that the restaurants are dangerous? > empczinski said that McDonald's (MCD) restaurants in the city are suffering, > "We have violent crime that's happening in our restaurants ... we're seeing homelessness issues in our restaurants. We're having drug overdoses that are happening in our restaurants," he said. "So we see in our restaurants, every single day, what's happening in society at large." Sounds like he's addressing more than HQ in his assertions.
    - tptacek 4y ago
      His employees don't work in the restaurants. McDonalds is a franchise business.
      - hollerith 4y ago
        About 5% of McDonald's locations are owned by the company: https://www.businessinsider.com/mcdonalds-is-raising-wages-but-only-in-company-owned-locations-2021-5 https://www.businessinsider.com/mcdonalds-is-raising-wages-b... I was unable in 5 minutes to find out how many of that 5% is in the Chicago area.
prepend 4y ago