Mega drive-throughs explain everything wrong with American cities

[Steely Dan]

The drive through restaurant is one of the worst urban design scourges ever delivered upon Chicago (and countless other US cities).

And this stupid-ass city keeps allowing them to be built!

Chick-fil-A wants to build one of it's shit-acular mega drive-thrus at a busy intersection a couple miles south of me. Fortunately, the surrounding community is pushing back against it, but we'll see if it has any effect.

Mega drive-throughs explain everything wrong with American cities
They’re great for the fast food industry — but not so great for us.
By Marina Bolotnikova
Updated Apr 9, 2024, 9:06am EDT

Just outside St. Louis, in the inner-ring suburb of University City, there’s a little neighborhood often called the region’s unofficial Chinatown. Growing up in the area, it was one of my favorite places to be; reflective of the city’s diversity and vitality, it opened up the world to me. This past December, when I went home for the holidays, I discovered that what was once a beloved strip of immigrant- and minority-owned businesses there — a Korean grocery, a pho shop, a Jamaican joint with vegetarian options, a Black-owned barber shop — had been bulldozed and replaced by a double-lane drive-through Chick-fil-A.

Across the street, another strip was torn down to make way for a Raising Cane’s and a Chipotle, both also equipped with drive-throughs.

This part of town was never exactly the height of urban design; it had long been sprawly, car-oriented, and not great for walking. But the redevelopment gave it another character entirely. Before, the businesses there were destinations you could walk to if you wanted. Now, an enormous concrete retaining wall was built outside the Chick-fil-A, closing it off from sidewalk access like a fortress to fast food capitalism. The place had become so hostile to anyone outside a car that no one was going to get in there on foot. It was not a destination, but a place meant to be driven through — which is to say, no place at all.

Full article: https://www.vox.com/the-highlight/24...fil-a-chipotle