Mega drive-throughs explain everything wrong with American cities

[meh]

Originally Posted by Steely Dan

Yeah, I can see how it feels that way with all the recent articles about the city's moribund office market, but I didn't post this one to pile on, I just can't fucking stand these things, and how Chicago continues allowing them to get built, and this article came across my feed and fanned my flames.

The fact that the author was inspired to write about this topic by a trip to st. louis was not me trying to pick at scabs. These fucking things are an ever-growing nation-wide cancer.

oh, no problem. i was just commenting on all the shitty copycat "journalism". one of the articles going around this cycle made statements like "Downtown St. Louis doesn't even have a library!" it has two, including St. Louis Central Library: a beautifully maintained and update Carnegie library designed by Cass Gilbert. it just gets tiresome.

[Emprise du Lion]

Originally Posted by meh

oh, no problem. i was just commenting on all the shitty copycat "journalism". one of the articles going around this cycle made statements like "Downtown St. Louis doesn't even have a library!" it has two, including St. Louis Central Library: a beautifully maintained and update Carnegie library designed by Cass Gilbert. it just gets tiresome.

Great. Which one said we don't have a library?

Also, I don't know which is worse: Being ignored by the media, or the media all running St. Louis sucks articles. It's great.

As for U City, you would think they would have realized that walkable and bikeable communities are ideal. They have the majority of the Delmar Loop for God's sake and a ton of WashU students.

[mhays]

Even if the drive-through is hidden, it's still encouraging people to drive.

[badrunner]

Originally Posted by mhays

Even if the drive-through is hidden, it's still encouraging people to drive.

It's reducing the number of curb cuts and making more efficient use of space. But it looks awful and feels kind of dystopian, and it wouldn't work with busier drive-thrus.

[SIGSEGV]

I wouldn't be opposed to a drivethrough on Lower Lower Wacker Drive...

[edale]

There's a new development on Figueroa by USC that features a Taco Bell with a drive-thru incorporated into the parking garage, too. If there has to be a drive-thru, this is the best way to do it.

Chick-Fil-A, In N Out, and Starbucks seem to be the worst offenders for driveways that I've seen. It seems like Starbucks especially is shifting priorities to drive-thrus, and people will line up down the block waiting for it.

[Doady]

Former long-time mayor of Mississauga, Hazel McCallion, hated drive-thrus so much that she tried to ban them from the city altogether. Eventually, the city imposed severe restrictions and new guidelines, especially at major intersections, to prevent long lineups from blocking the roads and sidewalks and impeding cars and pedestrian traffic.

Mississauga takes aim at drive-throughs

Mississauga mayor wants to fine drive-thru idlers

[MolsonExport]

Originally Posted by Doady

Former long-time mayor of Mississauga, Hazel McCallion, hated drive-thrus so much that she tried to ban them from the city altogether. Eventually, the city imposed severe restrictions and new guidelines, especially at major intersections, to prevent long lineups from blocking the roads and sidewalks and impeding cars and pedestrian traffic.

Mississauga takes aim at drive-throughs

Mississauga mayor wants to fine drive-thru idlers

She was certainly on to something. Drive-thrus impose so many costs on the environment: pollution, congestion, and sheer ugliness.

Welcome to Truck Whorton's

[iheartthed]

Originally Posted by MolsonExport

She was certainly on to something. Drive-thrus impose so many costs on the environment: pollution, congestion, and sheer ugliness.

Welcome to Truck Whorton's

That's what freedom looks like lol.

[Gresto]

Originally Posted by iheartthed

That's what freedom looks like lol.

Ye ain't gonna see no woke pinko commies usin' a drive-thru. Yee haw, giddy up, motherfucker!

[Doady]

Originally Posted by MolsonExport

She was certainly on to something. Drive-thrus impose so many costs on the environment: pollution, congestion, and sheer ugliness.

Welcome to Truck Whorton's

...

I live a block away from a Wendy's/Tim Hortons drive-through and sometimes there is garbage everywhere. The front lawns of the houses across the street are literally covered with fast food wrappings and cups. This is an older establishment so it is still allowed to operate, but a drive-through would not be allowed at that location today.

The drive-through epitomizes everything that is wrong with the suburban lifestyle, so much so that the Queen of Sprawl herself got so sick of them and eventually had them effectively banned from her so-called city.

[SIGSEGV]

Yeah maybe we should start fining them each them they back up into the street...

[ColDayMan]

I'll just say, we have a billion Tim Horton's in Ohio and I've NEVER seen a drive-thru line at any of them. That photo is remarkable.

[iheartthed]

Originally Posted by ColDayMan

I'll just say, we have a billion Tim Horton's in Ohio and I've NEVER seen a drive-thru line at any of them. That photo is remarkable.

Probably because the coffee at Tim Horton's is gross.

[sopas ej]

As an aside, I've never heard of Portillo's. I looked it up to see if they have any California locations, and sure enough, there are only 2 in the Greater Los Angeles area... one in Buena Park (Orange County) and one in Moreno Valley (next to Riverside).

Is it any good? Looking at the menu, if I were to go to one, I think I'd get the chopped salad.

Looking at the name, in my head I'm pronouncing it "Por-TEE-yos." Is that how it's pronouned? Or is it "Por-TILL-os"?

As another aside, it's funny because apparently in other parts of the US, people don't pronounce Spanish names the way we do here in southern California. I occasionally have to deal with people on the phone in the Northeast and South, and they pronounce these names differently:

Mario
Ramos
Morales

We say "MAH-ree-yo," some say "MEH-ree-yo."
We say "RAH-mos," some say "RAY-mos."
We say "Mo-RAH-less" or "Mo-RAH-lezz," (and this was a new one for me last week), some apparently say "Moh-RALZ."

[Steely Dan]

Originally Posted by sopas ej

Is it any good? Looking at the menu, if I were to go to one, I think I'd get the chopped salad.

It's Chicago junk food - Italian beef, dogs, polishes, etc.

I guess you could order a salad there, but I have no idea why anyone would.

It'd be like going to a bonafide pizzeria and ordering their sushi. Who does that?

Originally Posted by sopas ej

Looking at the name, in my head I'm pronouncing it "Por-TEE-yos." Is that how it's pronouned? Or is it "Por-TILL-os"?

It's named after its founder, Dick Portillo, who pronounces his last name the American way: por-TILL-oh

So that's what most people call it.

But now that Chicago is 1/3 Latino, I do hear the Spanish pronunciation of the name from time to time too.

[sopas ej]

Originally Posted by Steely Dan

It's Chicago junk food - Italian beef, dogs, polishes, etc.

I guess you could order a salad there, but I have no idea why anyone would.

It'd be like going to a bonafide pizzeria and ordering their sushi. Who does that?

Well, when I go to Habit Burger Grill and Farmer Boys (IMO an underrated SoCal burger/sandwich place that started in the Inland Empire), I get their salads, because they're good, and filling. I also like Farmer Boys' wraps.

https://www.habitburger.com/

https://www.farmerboys.com/

[benp]

Originally Posted by ColDayMan

I'll just say, we have a billion Tim Horton's in Ohio and I've NEVER seen a drive-thru line at any of them. That photo is remarkable.

I just checked, and there are 221 Tim Horton's listed in the Buffalo area, and yes, many if not most have lines every day.

Most of the drive-thru's that exist in the city were grandfathered in before the Green Code passed, or took over an existing drive-thru. Most of the city does not allow new drive-thrus except for a couple of designated big box store areas in North Buffalo. The Zoning Board did allow a couple of new ones with a drive-thru, but was required to make it a mixed-use building, and tucked away in the back.

Tim Horton's Michigan Ave
Tim Horton's Niagara Street

However, in the suburbs, directly across the city line in the Village of Kenmore, a full block formerly occupied by sidewalk-fronted shops (later torn town) was replaced just recently:

Tim Horton's Kenmore
Kenmore before Tim Horton's

[Wigs]

Originally Posted by benp

I just checked, and there are 221 Tim Horton's listed in the Buffalo area

221 Tim Hortons
More per capita than Hamilton, Ontario the original home of Tim's.
site of original Ottawa St location
https://maps.app.goo.gl/y4ELZPnv87nWt3RC9

[MolsonExport]

EVERY Rim Whoreton's in Canada has massive lineups of cars for much of the day. It is a complete mystery. The food is really mediocre at best, the service is much worse, and the prices are not that great either. Pigs slop on the go?