Horrified tastemakers have criticized plans to bring a 24-hour McDonald’s to its trendy inner-city suburb, calling the world-famous burgers “boring.”
The fast food giant recently submitted pre-development application plans for a new restaurant in Marrickville, Sydney’s inner-west, just down the road from one of the suburb’s hottest spots: Bob Hawke Beer and Leisure Center.
The suburb, 7km southwest of Sydney’s central business district, has transformed from its industrial roots to a bonanza of coffee roasters, local coffee shops and microbreweries.
But residents say McDonald’s plan to build a two-story burger palace with 24-hour burger service and a huge parking lot on busy Marrickville Road will ruin its hip vibe.
Numerous locals told Daily Mail Australia that the area was more about ’boutique cafes’ and Vietnamese pork roll shops than McCafes and burgers.
Thea Martin (pictured) prefers to eat at Marrickville’s famous pork roll shops
The proposed site where the fast food giant has submitted pre-development application plans for a new outlet in trendy Marrickville, near the craft beer specialist Bob Hawke Beer and Leisure Center
Thea Martin, 18, who is still in high school and works part-time at Coles, opposes a McDonald’s.
“Honestly, I’d rather eat at the local Vietnamese pork bun shops,” he said.
‘McDonald’s is McDonald’s, you can get it anywhere. But the pork rolls have just arrived and they are amazing.
Marrickville was voted Australia’s second coolest neighborhood by Time Out magazine last year, coming very close to Melbourne’s ultra-hip suburb of Fitzroy.
Brett Adrien, 34, who was a Marrickville resident for seven years and still works in the area, said it would be an “eyesore.”
“The consensus is that it doesn’t really belong here,” he said.
‘Marrickville has a character in its own right and McDonald’s has not been successful in these locations. There was one in Newtown that closed in 1998. A McDonald’s will not help the gentrification that has already occurred in the area.
Ms. Martin said she prefers to support local businesses, like the suburb’s iconic Marrickville Pork Roll shop.
Mr Adrien said Marrickville’s push to be more conscious of its environmental footprint would not be helped by a 24-hour restaurant.
“I appreciate the argument that it’s a place where young people can hang out, but by itself it’s not enough to justify having an eyesore like McDonald’s,” he said.
“Especially besides the amount of trash that tends to accumulate around a place like that if it’s open 24 hours.”
Adrien, who works at the Nimbus Vapor vape shop on Marrickville’s main drag, said the arrival of McDonald’s would also make the area lose its identity.
“Preserving or at least respecting the character of what makes Marrickville Marrickville is very important,” he said.
“Personally, I really don’t like seeing fast food chains engage in these land grabs that affect the overall character of a place.”
Brett Adrien (pictured) thinks the proposed McDonald’s would be an ‘eyesore’
Leyton Sloggett, 21, a published poet and bar manager at The Imperial in nearby Erskinville, added: “I really don’t think we need more (fast food restaurants).”
The Inner West Council’s planning alerts portal revealed that the application had also been hit by angry comments criticizing the submission.
One called McDonald’s “rude, rubbish, nauseating, and worst of all, boring” and said it would be “mortifying to tone down the cooking with disgusting, weird, fluffy rubbish.”
Another local told Nine’s Today on Wednesday: “Marrickville is more about boutique cafes, supporting the locals and quality coffee.”
Others said Macca’s was welcome to build the new store, but warned it would likely close.
“I’m not one for nimby-ism so whatever they want,” one told Today.
But that doesn’t mean it will survive here. There is no need for the Golden Arches.
But some in the suburb back the return of the Big Mac, after a previous Macca in the area closed 15 years ago.
Horrified locals have criticized plans to bring a 24-hour McDonald’s to their hipster suburb of Sydney’s inner city, calling the world-famous burgers “fluffy rubbish”.
Longtime local Michael Guirgis, 47, runs the We Love Marrickville Facebook group and says the suburb needs to keep in touch with its working-class origins.
“People are trying to turn Marrickville into this really hip area,” he told the Sydney Morning Herald.
I personally feel like they don’t want to come and adjust to the area, they want to come and change the area.
“I think we can have it as a trendy area, as well as a multicultural area like it traditionally was… We can have a little bit of everything.”
McDonald’s, which has 300 outlets in NSW, said it was in the early stages of its planned development at the corner of Marrickville Road and Meeks Street.
“Every McDonald’s restaurant is committed to supporting the community in which it operates through job creation, financial investment, and ongoing training and development opportunities,” he said.
“We look forward to meeting with the council to discuss this further.”
Marrickville was voted Australia’s second coolest neighborhood by Time Out magazine last year, coming within close proximity to Melbourne’s ultra-hip suburb of Fitzroy.
