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 ...
I did read the whole article and that makes me suspicious that this is a consortium intent on driving the business out.
Quietly, methodically destroying the profitability until the franchise owner sells out.
There is definitely something going on besides what the article says
BS. I have a 30oz. mug of coffee every morning. That sucker goes down in 5 minutes or less. But I'm pretty well under 77.
Maybe NYC will pass a law forbidding McDonalds from doing this.
I wouldn’t doubt it
Is trespassing a crime? If the owner has asked them to leave and they refuse, they are trespassing and the police can be called.
The police can reiterate the request and if they refuse they can be arrested.
I have done this at places I have worked at. One person was arrested after I called the police. He was prosecuted and 'convicted' after I testified against him. (He was a jerk).
But call 911? Not kosher.
“Homeless” and all the visual and odor pollution that comes along with that.
Libraries have nicer chairs if they want to sit.
Want to chat for hours, great, the park is good for that.
Why must there be more to this story? They’re bums, they have ZERO respect for private property, they’re begging for welfare, and they’ve bought into this “I’m a senior (what a gay term) and I AM ENTITLED TO STUFF!”
That’s the whole story.
Well said!
If they are not welfare bums then they have a home to go to. Rotate to a different home each day among their ‘chat’ buddies.
Problem solved.
FAB! I thought I was the only one who recognized a bum when I saw one!
Slip ‘em some roofies and see how they like waking up in a dumpster some where.
Is it bad that I laughed at that?
I haven’t ate anything from McDonald’s in years.
Here they offer free wireless.
One thing I notice, as the bad people move in the business owners get more difficult.
I remember here when you could pump gas first and pay afterward, till the libs move here
Not as bad as me having the thought in the first place! ;)
“Do you think you can drink a large coffee within 20 minutes?” David Choi, 77, said. “No, it’s impossible.” Bullsh*t. Easily done.”
Just lock the bathroom doors and don’t give them the keys. That should clear them out pretty quickly.
"...guess they’re all at mine."
Nope. Barnes and Noble is known for that type. I'm in a conservative town in central Virginia, but somehow all the ponytailed hippie types can be found at B & N.
LOL, love it
Simply remove the tables and chairs for a week. Bet they wouldn’t last more than 20 minutes.
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