Sunday, December 16, 2012

Don't Settle For A Burger King At Gateway Mall On Clark. Say No To More Auto Sewers.

           The neighborhood was recently notified via letters to people living within a small radius of  7513 N Clark street of plans for a new Burger King. We already have one dead husk from a previous Burger King in nearby West Ridge. Why do they deserve a shot at a new spot if they failed at the old one? They haven't helped out with old site, they just dropped it like a rock and let it rot. If the perfectly fine and healthy grass has to sit empty for a few more years who cares? Better that than to be stuck with such a boring and unhealthy restaurant as a Burger King. Sonic is moving into Uptown and may not be healthiest but at least its something new. The whole problem with the Howard Area is for the most part the businesses are very boring. We can learn alot from Uptown, they shot down the previous proposal for a high rise at the Maryville site because they didn't like the fact that TIF money was going to be used. Different situation but same principle. Why accept this suck-ass proposal for a Burger King? In general drive-thrus in the city do bring in money, but they ruin quality of life as can be seen in the case with Dunkin Donuts in Edgewater.

Burger King Of Christmas Past 12/16/12.
Joe Moore's Statement ["Hi folks, This post was just brought to my attention. Burger King would like to locate a restaurant and drive-thru on the vacant piece of land that sits just south of the HopHaus/Ethiopian Diamond II building in the Gateway Center."] .........["I plan on hosting a community meeting on this proposal some time in January. Let me know if you any other questions."]

Response - Seeing as how we are next to the Howard Red/Yellow/Purple line stop, how about not trying to make it more congested with cars? Do people live in the city so they can drive their cars to drive thrus for horrible fast food? Or do they want to walk around like we used to in the old days (1940s and before)? A drive thru is a horrible idea for this patch of land, there is already enough parking to sustain ANYTHING else. Anything including nothing is preferable. What year is this? Is it 1950 or 2012? Last time Chevanston checked we were trying to make the city more bicycle and pedestrian friendly not an auto sewer. We weren't all that thrilled with the Red Violin Liquor Store at Rogers and Clark, but that has turned out okay. This however is unacceptable. Rogers Park should be a destination for people in Evanston, the northshore and other parts of Chicago. This new Burger King is continuing the sad tradition of more chains making Clark Street in Rogers Park super boring and bland.

Do we need more cars here? 
Hey whats that yellow sign up there on that telephone poll? 
Keep reading below to find out.




Its our old friend Mr. Real Estate Investor.


Nice picture of Chevanston.

5 comments:

mcl said...

Those who have been in the neighborhood for a while ('80's) will remember the disaster that was the KFC that the Alderman at the time (Orr) justified going in with the same kind of BS that Joe has recently stated.."no other interested party has come forward, therefore this is the best we can do, etc., etc., yada, yada, yada! History repeating itself with what will be the same, long term, negative results for the neighborhood, a junk food purveyor. Where is the progressive, forward thinking Leadership?

Philip McGregor Rogers said...

Agreed MCL.

Sometimes nothing is better than something. What do we want Clark to become? We already have a blah McDonalds on Clark and Pratt.

The Walgreens at Rogers and Clark is depressing because its not adjacent to the sidewalk (this really should be fixed).

What future are we planning for Clark? Do we want a Clark street more like Andersonville or some depressing anyplace USA nowheresville?

Philip McGregor Rogers said...

Where was this KFC mcl?

mcl said...

East corner of Marshfiełd and Howard. Many in the neighborhood were against it, but the Alderman assured us that it was the best we would get. KFC made promises and committed to a well run and maintained operation. Once they built and opened it went to 'hell' quickly!

Unknown said...

Does anyone know anything about the former Burger King training center/restaurant on Devon Avenue in West Rogers Park? It became a Salvation Army thrift store in the 90s (or probably before) where I remember going to frequently and finding a lot of good things including most of my Atari 2600 collection. And in traditional Salvation Army thrift store fashion, the Salvation Army gutted the whole store space and didn't bother investing any money into renovating it so signs of the former Burger King were very visible including those iconic brown/orange BK floor tiles from the 80s/90s. In the early 2000s The Salvation Army moved out and the building became a Save-A-Lot grocery store where Save-A-Lot renovated the whole interior of the building with new lighting and tile flooring, and freshened up the exterior and facade as well. Sometime around 2007 Save-A-Lot moved out and the space once again became the Salvation Army thrift store that it is today.
Does anyone know anything else about this place? Preferably when it was a Burger King? I can't seem to find any info on it.

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- Francis