Please, keep commenting!!
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From: Jessie
Posted: 7th May 2009 at 01:23pm
This is ridiculous. To think that the southern most tip of the beautiful Mornington Peninsula has to fight to stop the homogenisation of its seaside towns!! Can you imagine the outraged reaction if fast food giants were homing in on Sorrento or Portsea?
Someone that doesn’t live in Rye told me yesterday that Rye needs development and doesn’t believe that Rye is OUR TOWN. I think the town meeting held on 23rd April, where approx 300 people attended, demonstrates how passionate locals are about our community! Development does not have to include fast food giants! So many wonderful ideas were discussed, if you want to stay informed check out the campaign’s website: OurTownRye.blogspot.com.
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From: JamesPosted: 6th May 2009 at 05:01pm
I can not believe what McDonald's is spouting about job opportunites and giving back to the community. We all know that the cost of living with McDonald's on our foreshore will far outweigh any false claims of ‘benefits’ to the community. 80 jobs for local people? What about those already employed by local traders? How will their employment be affected because small independent business’ can’t compete with the giant monopoly that is McDonald's? And jobs for local tradies. “Potentially” is the key word here, I think! The idea of McDonald's sponsoring sporting and community events is ludicrous - it would make me stay away!!! And watch out local schools in the area, McDonald's will be keen to offer you bribes too for a bit of promotion, say its logo stamped on text books, newsletters, etc. McDonald's is not an altruistic company whose focus is to better the community. McDonald's say they give but only if they are getting a lot more in return. This really would be a disaster for Rye, just when the community is putting forward great ideas on how to improve the culture of our town.
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From: MichellePosted: 6th May 2009 at 02:09pm
80 Jobs? This will not be fulltime jobs but casual jobs, poorly paid and peak season jobs. Let us weigh that up against those who will become unemployed in our cafes and food outlets when McDonald's drives these local, family-owned businesses out of town. How do you think Old McDonald's keep their dollar menu going by their employees breaking their backs working two or three positions at the same time just to keep the labour costs low. Is that what we want our local teens doing for part-time jobs? Serving up bad food under bad conditions, for low wages and abuse by non-caring, mostly one-off customers just passing through, and just imagine the clientele late night in the summer. Jobs for trades-persons? McDonald’s buildings are public buildings. How many local trades-persons are registered to build public buildings? I bet your bottom dollar McDonalds already have their preferred suppliers who churn out the pre-fab McBuildings (mostly out of china) at a very cheap price that many of our local building companies would find it difficult to compete with. Sponsorship opportunities? Don’t be fooled, it is all part of their marketing plan to get at our children.
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From: Andrew Humphrey
Posted: 6th May 2009 at 09:19am
The article seems to have a lot of 'coulds', 'mights' and 'potentiallys' in it for the “benefits” McDonald's will bring. I prefer to focus on the concrete: we know a McDonald’s will greatly increase rubbish in the area, we know a McDonald’s in the area will lead to a decline in diversity of local traders, we know a McDonald’s in the area will lead to a decline in the quality of food consumed by our kids, we know a McDonald’s in the area will cause localised traffic problems, we know a McDonald’s on the foreshore would be an eyesore.
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From: Joy
Posted: 6th May 2009 at 08:20am
Oh McDonald's, you have not convinced me yet! I am filled with questions. What type of jobs are on offer here? Is it well paying employment that will help someone in our community provide for themselves and their family? Perhaps it is low paying, casual work for 15 year olds who will take their money out of town to spend it? As for local tradies getting more work, does this mean local contractors will get the bulk of the build or will that be given to your usual building suppliers who are experienced at piecing together pre-fab commercial buildings? I ask how much good quality, well paid and consistent work is really on offer? Of course, the next question to ask is ‘how much of this type of employment will be lost when our local traders have to close their doors’? You can not buy me with your offers of sporting sponsorship and the like. I wish to teach my children about a healthy lifestyle and a good work ethic. An enjoyable, community-minded fundraiser may take a bit of work but that doesn’t scare me. McDonald's offers do! This is OUR town, we should get to make the choice. We do NOT want your type of community support, but thanks for the offer!
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From: Ben
Posted: 5th May 2009 at 11:48pm
What a load of rubbish! We don’t want McDonald's here and especially don’t want them offering money to schools and sporting events like bribes. “Giving back to the community” - yeah right, as long as they can see an advertising opportunity in it for them, somewhere to put their yellow arches. Keep them away from our town and our kids!
13 comments:
There are some fantastic points here! I hadn't even thought of how our local builders will miss out on such works.
@ Andrew
"Interesting that they say they’ll consult with the council on community issues? I wonder why they don’t want to consult with the community on community issues?"
Are you telling me you don't understand that the council are our elected representatives? Would you propose that Maccas spoke to every individual?
The council is the ONLY body they should be talking to about community issues, no other group has been elected by the people especially not some small reactionary group obsessed with its own "correctness". The council can represent me, that's why I vote, you how ever do not represent the community and should NOT be consulted.
Once you all defeat or are defeated by Maccas, perhaps you'd like to attack democracy, you obviously have no respect for it.
@anonymous
So let me get this straight, in your world democracy means, at best, I get informed about the issues at hand around election time, I make my decision and then I'm done for 3 or 4 years?
Democracy without conversation? Interesting concept! A democracy without citizen involvement? Sounds like a recipe for success! Requiring people to blindly accept the decisions of govt? Gee, sign me up that sounds great! Although now that I stop and think I'm pretty sure political systems that match those three criteria have names other than representative democracy.
I'm more than happy for you to live your political life the way you want to, any chance you could return the favour?
Cheers,
Andrew
Sadly I think you missed my point Andrew, I didn't say the community shouldn't be consulted, quite the opposite. The council should consult us, but I don't believe that Maccas or anyone else should have to deal with anyone but the council.
I'm concerned about vocal minorities getting listened to by corporates when they don't represent the majority of the community. Are you concerned that if Maccas deal with the council that the decision will be made according to what the majority of the community wants as opposed to your small minority?
You can live how ever you wish Andrew, but I will continue to try and respect the system we have and not stand by as minority groups demand that corporates listen to them over the body who legitimately represents the community.
I don't care if Maccas sets up in Rye or not, but I find this debate incredibly interesting due to the way people think these things should be dealt with. And let's not forget some of the outrageous claims that get made during these types of issues, and the crazy things people use to justify their positions (like pics of rubbish on the street, I'll be in Rye on the weekend and will be sure to photograph all the trash lying around, I wonder how much of it will have an M on it, not much I suspect)
To Anonymous: Perhaps you should leave Rye's fight up to Rye? You are obviously not a local, seeing as you'll be 'in Rye on the weekend'.
You say that this "minority group" does not represent the community. I'd like to point out that you were NOT at the Town Meeting in late April and you have NOT spoken to hundreds of locals regarding this situation so you have no idea that this group speaks on the behalf of the vast MAJORITY of the community, including myself.
Cheers, Jessie (not Anonymous).
@anonymous Actually I think I answered you directly on point. You have a picture about how democracy should work and you have decided to try and force people into your mould. As I previously stated I don't believe that's a workable definition of a healthy democracy in action.
Do you see the contradiction here? You, a self-appointed small vocal minority, is complaining about a supposed vocal minority attempting to sway the behaviour of the larger community?
You seem confident that the majority of the community want a McDonald's in Rye? Got a basis for that that's more valid than a town meeting attended by hundreds of people at reasonably short notice? Or, ironically, are you just voicing your deeply held concerns?
Cheers,
Andrew
Go Andrew
I think it is a shame that a bunch of bored housewifes have nothing better to do. Is there only 350 houses in Rye or is Rye a community made up of people from all walks of life. Our children deserve to have employment and expansion is the only way this can happen.
IS RAY BEECH REALLY A PERSON OR COULD HE ALSO BE RAY SANDCASTLE
IS RAY BEECH ALSO ON HAND IMMEDIATELY AFTER ONE WRAPPER IS DROPPED ANYWHERE ON THE PENINSULAR
SURELY THIS IS A SET UP AND RAY CAN TAKE PHOTOS
GOOD ONE
Go Shelley
I am glad that somebody is helping us kids to be able to get a job close to home because my mum does not drive.
I have just looked at the Committees photos of themselves and notice that they are all on the old side. Does this mean that Rye cannot go forward or change until they die. This is just like what happened in Rosebud with the proposed Marina - You old foggies should be ashamed of your selfishness - What about our children.
Odd, just showed this post to a friend, and I was sure that Anon had made another reply. In fact I'm sure she did, as she told me so. She certainly would not have used vulgarity or lies, so I wonder where the comment is?
I can guarantee that the only comments deleted intentionally were those that did not meet our comment policy. If a comment was submitted by 'anon' after our policy was enforced it would not have been presented to us as the filter does not allow them. If your friends comment does meet all of our requirements and has been deleted in error I apologise, however, please feel free to submit the comment again as we are in no way trying to censor or sway the argument, just trying to ensure it is carried out in a legal and respectful matter.
The photos of the Rye's Up! committee have never been published, in fact they have never been taken as a group. For those interested, our youngest members are in their 20's, hardly old I would say. We are also consulting and discussing the issue with children of all age ranges, those both for and against a McDonalds in Rye.
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