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| More calories than you can shake a stick at. Chevanston photo exclusive (Burger King at Lawrence just west of Western) |
In 2011 this graffiti was photographed in Downtown Seattle. Chevanston is not a promoter of graffiti, but sometimes it serves a purpose.Yes we can all say, lets not be a nanny state and tell people what to do with their bodies, let's let them kill themselves with the fat rich unhealthy food. Let's just let the market decide, why interfere? Why have an opinion? Okay then you can pay for their healthcare when the health problems start popping up later. Who pays for the health related conditions caused by this unhealthy food? The taxpayers and the government.
Pretty sure most people living in Rogers Park or thinking of moving here aren't doing so they can be close to fast food places that can be found anywhere, anyplace USA. Imagine if this was being proposed for Chicago Ave in Evanston. It would be shot down in a heartbeat and people would be wondering why did they even bother. So why is Rogers Park the dumping ground for these low-class, low-health and unethical businesses? From a public health standpoint Burger King is as unhealthy as all the other fast food burger joints and the way the meat is produced is just as disgusting. We know, we know let the market decide. Lets just let Clark street turn into a brand new cultural ghetto. Who cares? Why even try? No one else wants to relocate there, so why even try for anything else?. Lets just settle for one of the most boring, unhealthy restaurants that couldn't even succeed on Howard. They left their last restaurant in real nice shape.
Evanston has gone so far to buy up property on Howard and to subsidize a wine bar. Chicago has reinvested the Howard area with its streetscape and Gateway mall project, so why settle for less? The Evanston owned property sat for years empty until a decent business proposal was either subsidized or came forward. This area is troubled and sometimes TIFs actually have to go into propping up businesses to turn it around. Many people in Evanston are upset with the government backed wine bar and they want everyone to start breaking out their copies of Animal Farm. With Burger King we have something far worse, we have inhumane treatment of animals leading to the creation some of the most unhealthy food ever, looks like we have some reading to do too. (Fast Food Nation).
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| Trapped in a world of unhealthy food I seek escape. Hark what's that I see over these crowns that weigh so heavy upon my weary head? |
(We have a Popeye's on Howard nearby, a McDonalds at Pratt and Clark, and a Subway and Dunkin' Donuts at Lunt and Clark and another at the Gateway Mall, and a Subway on Howard. Are we trying to become a fast food destination? Are we trying to develop a strip of despair and true ennui? Some fast food is inevitable, but a cluster of them is unappealing, unhealthy and Burger King has not been a good steward of the land in this community.)
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| Lord why have you forsaken me? Why am I doomed to only partake of this most unhealthy of foods? |
1 comment:
I agree on the wrongheadedness of bringing another junk joint to this location, but approaching it from the nutrition POV just turns people away. Nobody wants a food scold looking over their shoulder.
To me the real argument is what it does to a neighborhood that's trying to redefine itself as interesting and different. There's not much in this world more boring, mediocre, and predictable than BK. There are two good restaurants next door that are going for a foodie/destination market. There are some excellent Mexican joints across the street that fit that plan. This BK will undermine the efforts to upgrade the RP experience and bring people in to explore it. It's like putting ads for the Metropolitan Opera in the Sun.
As a reformed marketing guy, I gotta say, this is just plain self-defeating bad planning. I have no problem with people chowing down on junk in RP, but this location is the wrong place, wrong time.
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