Horrified trendsetters have slammed plans to bring a 24-hour McDonald’s to their hip inner-city suburb, branding the world-famous burgers as ‘boring’.
The fast food giant recently lodged pre-development application plans for a new restaurant in Marrickville, in Sydney’s inner-west, just down the road from one of the coolest spots in the suburb – the Bob Hawke Beer and Leisure Centre.
The suburb, 7km south-west of Sydney’s CBD, has transformed from its industrial roots to a bonanza of coffee roasters, local cafes and small-run breweries.
But residents say McDonald’s’ plan to build a two-storey, 24-hour burger palace with drive through facilities and a large car park on busy Marrickville Road will ruin its hip vibe.
Numerous locals told Daily Mail Australia the area was more about ’boutique cafes’ and Vietnamese pork roll shops than McCafes and burgers.
Thea Martin (pictured) prefers to eat in Marrickville’s famous pork roll shops
The proposed site where the fast food giant has lodged a pre-development application plans for a new outlet in trendy Marrickville, close to craft beer specialist Bob Hawke Beer and Leisure Centre
Thea Martin, 18, who is still at high school and works part-time in Coles, is opposed to a McDonald’s.
‘Honestly, I’d prefer to eat from the local Vietnamese pork roll shops,’ she said.
‘McDonald’s is McDonald’s – you can get it anywhere. But pork rolls are just here and they are so amazing.’
Marrickville was last year voted Australia’s second-coolest neighbourhood by Time Out magazine – coming a close second to Melbourne’s ultra-hip suburb of Fitzroy.
Brett Adrien, 34, who was a Marrickville local 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 on its own merit and McDonald’s hasn’t been successful in these parts. There was one in Newtown which closed in 1998. A McDonald’s won’t help the gentrification that’s already happened in the area.’
Ms Martin said she prefers to support local business, like the suburb’s iconic Marrickville Pork Roll shop
Mr Adrien said Marrickville’s push to be more conscious of its environmental footprint wouldn’t be helped by a 24-hour restaurant.
‘I appreciate the argument that it’s somewhere where youth will be able to hang out but on it’s own standing isn’t enough to warrant having an eyesore like McDonald’s,’ he said.
‘Especially on top of the amount litter that tends to build up around a place like that if it’s open 24 hours.’
Mr Adrien, who works at the Nimbus Vapour vape shop on Marrickville’s high street, said the arrival of McDonald’s would also see the area lose its identity.
‘Preserving or at least respecting the character of what makes Marrickville Marrickville is pretty important,’ he said.
‘I personally really dislike seeing fast food chains go for these landgrabs which affects the overall character of a place.’
Brett Adrien (pictured) believes the proposed McDonald’s would be an ‘eyesore’
Leyton Sloggett, 21, a published poet and a bar manager at The Imperial in nearby Erskinville, added: ‘I don’t really think we need any more [fast food restaurants].’
The Inner West Council’s planning alert portal revealed the application had also been hit by furious feedback blasting the submission.
One branded McDonald’s ‘crass, trashy, nauseating and, worst of all, boring’ and said it would be ‘mortifying to bring down the culinary tone with gross, weird, spongy junk’.
Another local told Nine’s Today show on Wednesday: ‘Marrickville’s more about boutique cafes, supporting locals and quality coffee’.
Others said Macca’s was welcome to build the new outlet – but warned it would likely close down.
‘I’m not one for nimby-ism so whatever they like,’ one told Today.
‘But it doesn’t mean it will survive here. There’s no need for the Golden Arches.’
But some in the suburb are backing the return of the Big Mac, after an earlier Macca’s in the area closed down 15 years ago.
Horrified locals have slammed plans to bring a 24-hour McDonald’s to their hipster inner-city Sydney suburb – and branded the world-famous burgers ‘spongy junk’
Lifelong local Michael Guirgis, 47, runs the Facebook group We Love Marrickville and says the suburb needs to keep in touch with its working class origins.
‘People are trying to change Marrickville into this really hip area,’ he told the Sydney Morning Herald.
‘I feel personally like they don’t want to come and adapt to the area, they want to come and change the area.
‘I think we can have it as a hip area as well as a multicultural area like it traditionally was… We can have a bit of everything.’
McDonald’s – which has 300 outlets in NSW – said it was in the early stages of its planned development on the corner of Marrickville Road and Meeks Street.
‘Every McDonald’s restaurant is committed to supporting the community it operates in through job creation, economic investment and ongoing training and development opportunities,’ it said.
‘We look forward to meeting with council to discuss this further.’
Marrickville was last year voted voted Australia’s second-coolest neighbourhood by Time Out magazine – coming a close second to Melbourne’s ultra-hip suburb of Fitzroy
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