Posted on 01/15/2014 12:17:56 PM PST by moonshinner_09
Shortly after New Year’s Day, Man Hyung Lee, 77, was nursing a coffee in his usual seat in a narrow booth at a McDonald’s in Flushing, Queens, when two police officers stepped into the fluorescent light of the restaurant.
Mr. Lee said the officers had been called because he and his friends — a revolving group who shuffle into the McDonald’s on the corner of Parsons and Northern Boulevards on walkers, or with canes, in wheelchairs or with infirm steps, as early as 5 a.m. and often linger until well after dark — had, as they seem to do every day, long overstayed their welcome.
“They ordered us out,” Mr. Lee said from his seat in the same McDonald’s booth a week after the incident, beneath a sign that said customers have 20 minutes to finish their food. (He had already been there two hours.) “So I left,” he said.
“Then I walked around the block and came right back again.”
For the past several months, a number of elderly Korean patrons and this McDonald’s they frequent have been battling over the benches inside. The restaurant says the people who colonize the seats on a daily basis are quashing business, taking up tables for hours while splitting a small packet of French fries ($1.39); the group say they are customers and entitled to take their time. A lot of time.
“Do you think you can drink a large coffee within 20 minutes?” David Choi, 77, said. “No, it’s impossible.”
And though they have treated the corner restaurant as their own personal meeting place for more than five years, they say, the situation has escalated in recent months. The police said there had been four 911 calls since November requesting the removal of the entrenched older patrons.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
The Manager should get and serve them with restraining orders. It’s not the Public Library where pervs can sit down and surf porn unhindered.
They could pool their french fry money and rent their own store front and play Chinese dominoes all day if they want.
I can drink a pot of coffee in 20 minutes. And I'm ashamed of enjoying it.
I feel sorry for the old folks but they need to find a new place to congregate.
McDonalds adopts that policy in stores where they have issues with criminal activity.
Such as the one in downtown Pittsburgh that was functioning pretty much as an open drug market. The signs showed up not long after that hit the papers.
Why do you feel sorry for the welfare begging bums—they are stealing the private property of other human beings and should be treated accordingly.
I agree. The restaurants have rights too.
The should get a restraining order against them.
It’s a private business, the goal of which is to make a profit. It has the right to turn over its tables in a timely manner, and these people are taking advantage.
This McDonald’s average sales per square foot is definitely skewed by these patrons inconsiderate behavior.
Very selfish behavior. That group is not respecting the business owners of the facility. There are plenty other senior centers, they are just caught up in stubbornness and unnecessary power struggles. OK, you want to play that game, fine. The new rules as of today say you may visit up to twenty minutes at a time or spend $6.00 or more for the next twenty minutes, after which, you must leave for at minimum eight hours. They may have to start stamping palms with an ink logo, like at a nightclub. Measures to deal with these senior may become more harsh, especially in the wake of the 71 y/o retired cop who killed somebody for texting in a theatre. This is not the hill worth dying or going to jail over, this is a food business.
These sound like the kind of people that Comrade DiBlasio pledged to help.
Let’s put a tax on McDonalds to build them a senior center!
The Wo Chin Fat Lee Trans seem to forget that in America, we still have at least a smidgen of property rights.
These are elderly retired people, NOT WELFARE BUMS. SHAME ON YOU! They are staying too long but have been doing it for five years. This situation should have been resolved a long time ago.
Name calling makes the Free Republic look like the DU.
To bad they couldn’t have just built a small sit down area for seniors. Like instead of the children’s play set, they put in senior play sets.
I know other McDonalds stores in the area that actually encourage Seniors to hang around sipping their discounted coffee. Guess it depends on their location and how much space they have available.
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