The Fast-Food Furor

Urban Americans have become inured to everything from muggings to traffic jams to the destruction of architectural landmarks. But there seems to be one last insult that many city dwellers cannot endure: the invasion of franchised fast-food outlets. Cambridge, Mass., for example, has passed an ordinance that virtually bans any chain store selling burgers, pizza, fried chicken or hot dogs. In Washington, B.C., angry residents recently blocked Gino's (burgers) from building on Dupont Circle. In the residential Broadmoor section of New Orleans, pickets are protesting a Popeye's Fried Chicken shop. At least three community groups in Manhattan are fighting attempts by the franchisers to open new shops in or near residential neighborhoods. One sign says it all: WE DESERVE A BREAK TODAY. STOP MCDONALD'S.

The trouble began when fast-food chains, designed specifically to appeal to suburban and highway trade, started to move into established middle-class urban neighborhoods on the fringes of commercial districts. The strategy made good business sense; the places would attract the lunchtime crowd from the nearby offices and stores, and could draw on the residential area for evening customers. But in these locations, the basic formula of fast-food chains--flamboyant stores plus a heavy volume of take-out orders and quick turnover of customers--often is also the formula for trouble. Streets for blocks around become littered with emblemed boxes, cups and bags; double-parking near the outlet causes traffic jams; transients drawn by inexpensive food disturb--and sometimes menace--local residents. Indeed, some Manhattan community groups charge that the fast-food joints attract not only raucous youths and loiterers but also pimps, prostitutes and drug addicts.

Garish Signs. Faced with growing neighborhood opposition, the franchisers have launched vigorous campaigns to better their image. In Chicago, Burger King assigns crews to pick up all litter within two blocks of its outlets. Most chains will agree with community demands to remove their garish outdoor signs or scale down their golden arches and revolving buckets so that, as a McDonald's official says, "we can blend in with the local decor."

In Northern California, for example, Kentucky Fried Chicken sells out of low-slung buildings with dark mansard roofs. But when Salem, Mass., a small city proud of its 18th century buildings, insisted that a proposed new Burger King had to complement the town's colonial architecture, the chain drew the line. Instead of responding with its well-known slogan, "Have it your way," Burger King abandoned its plans to build in Salem.

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