McDonald's Has Had Some Epic California Fails

BY TAMARA PALMER

It’s been about eight years since I had my last order of real McDonald’s French fries (those flaccid Gilroy garlic fries that they had for a minute do not count). I sat in the Southwest terminal at LAX and ate them slowly and mindfully, appreciating every salt crystal and simulated fluff of potato so deeply that I can still recall the taste. They were amazing. I miss them terribly, but am happy that the addiction has been broken.

That airport McDonald’s is now gone, replaced by healthier fare like the Urth Caffe (and some cheesy spots such as Gene Simmons’ Rock & Brews). And while it would be safe to assume that the company, which launched in San Bernardino in 1940, will always have a presence in California, McD’s has had some epic fails in the Golden State (not including some genuine tragedies, like the mass shooting that occurred at a San Ysidro McDonald’s in 1984).

The most embarrassing fail took place in San Francisco, where the now-defunct Haight Street McDonald’s was declared a public nuisance in a letter sent to the owners by City Attorney Dennis Herrera, a story I reported on with delight for NBC Bay Area in May 2015.

Herrera noted that incidents including 32 fights, assaults or batteries, two dog attacks, and eight car break-ins were recorded on the property (and mostly in the parking lot) between January 2014 and April 2015. He added that the SFPD received more than 1,100 complaints about the McDonald's since January 2012.

"In the last six months the police have recovered more than 100 doses of LSD, over two pounds of marijuana, 88.5 grams of psilocybin (psychedelic mushrooms), more than half of a pound of marijuana edibles, and hashish from drug dealers selling their products on your property," Herrera wrote.

McDonald’s closed 154 locations that year, but the Haight Street location managed to stay open until 2018. San Francisco purchased the property for $15.5 million and housing will eventually sprout up in place of the Golden Arches. Several other San Francisco locations have shuttered in the past few years, including one on Mission Street that’s amusingly now home to Kitava, a Paleo and Keto-friendly restaurant.

Forgive me for gloating, but given where this company sits in the political world, I’m happy to make my own freedom fries.