Comments on: McDonald's/Burger King Mentions in Parks Department Records Just a Formality, Not Really News

By: Herr Doktor Professor Deth Vegetable

Herr Doktor Professor Deth Vegetable — Wed, 10 Nov 2010 19:02:33 +0000

Pretty sure that anyone who thinks that MickyD’s coffee is better than Blue Bottle is someone whose opinions on food/beverages can be handily discounted as irrelevant.

By: Allan Hough

Allan Hough — Wed, 10 Nov 2010 06:25:13 +0000

Astuter!

By: halle

halle — Wed, 10 Nov 2010 06:19:12 +0000

I’ve got the point. The point is that nothing Parks and Rec has ever done, or could ever do in the future would ever be right. Obviously, they should have refused to provide publicly available information to companies that opponents to amenities in parks disapprove of, based on well, you know, the Parks and Rec government secrets code. Because the office assistant answering the phone should have done a detailed investigation of anyone asking to be on an information list before agreeing to take their information. Jeebus.

By: Ariel Dovas

Ariel Dovas — Wed, 10 Nov 2010 04:46:00 +0000

Not to be mean, but your foot odor might calm down if you changed your diet a bit. The meal is only $3.50, but then the can of odor eaters is another couple bucks.

By: Allan Hough

Allan Hough — Wed, 10 Nov 2010 04:07:31 +0000

Astute!

By: MrEricSir

MrEricSir — Wed, 10 Nov 2010 04:00:47 +0000

I could be totally wrong, but I think what KevMo was trying to say is this: The Recs and Park folks claim they messed up by not doing enough outreach. But then you look at what they did, and it’s pretty clear that they did a LOT of outreach. They just reached out to the wrong people.

My view is that if instead of notifying chain fast food companies about the food cart opportunity they had notified park goers and local businesses, the community would have been involved from the start and things would have turned out very differently.

By: Allan Hough

Allan Hough — Wed, 10 Nov 2010 03:31:22 +0000

I understand both those points, and I read the original piece. I was not impressed. Mission Local’s report was more interesting, so I linked to them. You have not clarified your point.

By: Kevin Montgomery

Kevin Montgomery — Wed, 10 Nov 2010 03:25:15 +0000

Sorry, again, I was assuming you read the original piece.

“They claimed they did their part, but the evidence clearly shows they didn’t.” they should have said “Rec + Park”

910 was the number of businesses on the list of solicited businesses.

By: Allan Hough

Allan Hough — Wed, 10 Nov 2010 02:35:32 +0000

Aren’t you talking about two different things? People were accusing the department of not notifying the public, the neighbors or neighboring businesses or whatever. And then you say, “Out of 910, only a few dozen were local,” which seems to refer to an entirely different part of the process. You do that a lot. Maybe that’s why I didn’t get the point of your piece.

By: Ferocious Foot Odor

Ferocious Foot Odor — Wed, 10 Nov 2010 02:11:52 +0000

I enjoy McDonalds at least once a week — fries, a double cheeseburger and side salad. For like $3.50.

Its always packed with every stripe of people.

And their coffee is better than Blue Bottle.

By: Kevin Montgomery

Kevin Montgomery — Wed, 10 Nov 2010 01:54:42 +0000

I don’t think you got the point of the piece that you didn’t link to (hence the pissing contest). It wasn’t about “McDonald’s” (hell, we can all agree that McDonald’s wouldn’t even be interested in the space), it was about the outreach. People have been condemning the process all along, accusing the Department from not doing their job notifying the public. They claimed they did their part, but the evidence clearly shows they didn’t. Out of 910, only a few dozen were local. So, yeah, you can claim it’s “not news,” but that’s not true.

The reason I used “McDonald’s” in the title was because it was a nod to Fayes, Dolores Park Cafe, and Chicken John, who had used McDonald’s as a fear-inducing “slippery slope” comparison to Blue Bottle. At the time, I dismissed this claim and fantasy, but it clearly wasn’t so.

By: MrEricSir

MrEricSir — Wed, 10 Nov 2010 01:32:09 +0000

There’s no reason the Parks folks had to reach out to McDonald’s. Saying so is very misleading.

They wrote the rules for park vending, so they could have easily excluded non-local vendors.

By: Allan Hough

Allan Hough — Wed, 10 Nov 2010 00:55:37 +0000

Nobody’s pissing. I just got really excited when my Dolores Park Google Alerts were all “MCDONALD’S THIS” and “MCDONALD’S THAT,” and then was disappointed when nothing happened.

By: Kevin Montgomery

Kevin Montgomery — Wed, 10 Nov 2010 00:52:12 +0000

Oh Allan, your pissing contest is so cute.

“So you know, we are accepting proposals on an ongoing basis. At the end of my presentation I’ll actually give you a snapshot of the folks that will be coming back to you on May 6th. So if you’ve got a favorite food do let us know, we’ll encourage them to apply.” – http://sf-recpark.org/index.aspx?page=2507