Wednesday, May 22, 2013

The Lesson of the 1971 McDonald's Built in the Shadow of the Cabrini-Green Housing Projects in Chicago


PK NOTE -- Yr: Five starts tomorrow. Today marks the four-year anniversary of the start of SBPDL. This past year was to be the final year of this site, but SBPDL has grown into something beyond a parody Web site. In 2009, an experiment began on May 22 -- today, that experiment has birthed Second City Confidential: The Black Experience in Chicagoland. The fourth book in an ongoing series documenting the collapse of America's great cities, no work is more timely than the account of the black experience in Chicago. 


“Standing up and Standing Out: how I teamed with a few Black men, changed the face of McDonald’s, and shook up corporate America,” is Roland L. Jones account of the founding the National Black McDonald’s Operators Association (NBMOA) and his ascension up the corporate ladder at a company that eventually 100 percent 365Black.
The blueprint for how McDonald's - and all corporate America - went 365Black


His book offers a virtual timeline in how the ‘365Black’ marketing strategy came into place at McDonald’s – even in the 1960s, McDonald’s main corporate office in Chicago was spending more money to help keep afloat franchises owned by blacks – and a powerful lesson in why corporate America is firmly in the pocket of what we dubbed Black-Run America (BRA).

One lesson from Jones’ book reminds us of the story of the closed Wal-Mart in Tuskegee. As we approach the start of Year 5 (four-year anniversary of the site is today), allow us this one moment to highlight this great moment in black history:
An unforgettable illustration of the kind of difficulties we ran into was Cabrini-Green. In 1971, the company [McDonald’s] decided to build a new restaurant across the street from the massive cluster of government housing projects called Cabrini-Green, in the old “Little Italy” section of Chicago. The company had great hopes for the Cabrini-Green venture, which was the first new store constructed in a majority black area in Chicago. The potential market was huge: more than 15,000 people lived in the projects. Unemployment was extremely high, but our black McDonald’s owners in other low-income Chicago areas were already showing increased sales and earnings, so everyone thought it was do-able in the projects. I was convinced that the Cabrini-Green store would provide employment and the kind of job training that would translate into wider opportunities for project residents. 
 The new store seemed to me an ideal opportunity to act on Ray Kroc’s commitment to give back to the community. 
 The plan went forward in a real spirit of optimism. The flaw was that no one, myself included, dug deeply enough into the situation at Cabrini-Green to really grasp the inherent problems. We badly misjudged the economic viability of the location. Most of the people in the projects lived entirely or partly on welfare or Social Security, and they only had money to spend on the few days after their government checks arrived (or, for the fortunate few, when they received their pay checks). Also, Cabrini-Green was among the worst maintained and most dangerous housing projects in the whole country, and many of the residents didn’t feel safe leaving their apartments, much less visiting the restaurant or sending their kids there. Although situated near some of the city’s most affluent areas, Cabrini-Green was like an isolated island. Non-residents rarely came into the projects unless they had to, and they left as soon as they could, so there was very little pass-through traffic to sustain businesses when the locals stayed away. 
 The Cabrini-Green projects were often compared to a prison, and prisons breed lawlessness. The first trouble came almost immediately when a local black preacher and a so-called “activist,” backed up by young men from the projects, began pressuring the owner-operator, Andrew Davis, for jobs and favors in what was basically a shakedown scheme. 
 The situation was similar to what Sherman Claypool faced in Milwaukee, and there was always the potential that it could flare into a mini-version of the 1969 Cleveland boycott [PK NOTE: we wrote about that here]. I was Andy’s field consultant, and I supported him when he stood up to the pressure. Frustrated, the troublemakers went around us to corporate, and Pat Flynn, the area manager for McOpCo (the company owned stores), and Joe Brown… were drawn in to negotiate some kind of settlement, with help from those of us in the regional office. Both Pat and Joe got death threats, but they also refused to cave. Joe was adept at turning the activists’ demands back on themselves: They would call for a jobs program; Joe would ask them to present their plan for the program; then they would back off because, of course, they had no plan. Jobs weren’t what they were really after. Joe and Pat eventually did negotiate for landscaping work, and McDonald’s helped the group start a landscaping business. But the whole thing petered out when the would-be extortionists lost interest.
The Cabrini-Green McDonald's -- like the Wal-Mart in Tuskegee, a near 100 percent black community couldn't sustain a private business; nor could they sustain the Cabrini-Green projects...

 Andy Davis was an experienced operator and became a valued member of the BMOA [Black McDonald’s Operating Association]… but even he couldn’t make the Cabrini-Green restaurant successful. With so little money in the housing projects and no outside traffic, the store could not build volume and was frequently empty. It struggled on for several years but was eventually closed by McDonald’s. In financial terms, it was a failure. The company never gave up on any store without a fight, so I’m sure there were also some bruised egos inside the Ivory Tower when the Cabrini-Green store was shut down.  (p. 223-225)

Cabrini-Green, like Robert Taylor Homes, is no more.

In the absence of whiteness, you get a situation like that found at the former Chicago Housing Authority (CHA) Cabrini-Green or Robert Taylor Homes -- like a black hole, everything near it was sucked into the nothingness of the 365Black community.

Not even McDonald's was spared. 

The moral of the story? 

The era of 365Black - not just McDonald's marketing strategy, but Black-Run America as well - will pass. 

Our job is to survive. 



39 comments:

Anonymous said...

Well, since we can't stop it all we can do is outlive it.

Anonymous said...

@SBPDL

Keep going! When the blog doesn't tell a story that infuriates, it tells one that's hilarious. The comment section is golden.

We will stand by will BRA implodes. That's the best strategy.

The PDK Herald/Crier Project said...

Congratulations Paul, a long ruff road, but I'm sure a satisfying one as well.

Best wishes for your next successful year. Thanks.

R.E. Prindle said...

Congratulation on your four year anniversary. One of the hardest working bloggers around. The site is in a period of real development too. Keep the running shoes on.

rjp said...

In the second photo SBPDL uses, notice the fencing and the black vertical bars holding the fencing securely to the building. That was not original. That was installed after it became black because black people were throwing other black people they had a grudge with off of the balconies. Yep, balconies just like a HoJo's, but because of lack of black self-control, they had to be caged in like they were prisons (I believe this was done in the late 1960s).

For anyone that doesn't know, the TV show "Good Times" supposedly took place in Cabrini and can be seen in the opening and closing credits.

... across the street from the massive cluster of government housing projects called Cabrini-Green, in the old “Little Italy” section of Chicago.

It's comical when you think about it, "Little Italy".

I was convinced that the Cabrini-Green store would provide employment and the kind of job training that would translate into wider opportunities for project residents.

You was a fool. Shaniqua doesn't want to get off her ass and go hang around an empty ass McDonalds and yap with co-workers for 8 hours of pay.

Also, Cabrini-Green was among the worst maintained and most dangerous housing projects in the whole country, ......

It could only be attempted to be maintained as fast as they were destroying it.

Jobs weren’t what they were really after.

No shit? You mean the negroes suing the onion growers for jobs in Georgia don't really want jobs either?

Joe and Pat eventually did negotiate for landscaping work, and McDonald’s helped the group start a landscaping business. But the whole thing petered out when the would-be extortionists lost interest.

And since planting a few small trees and some potted plants was actually work ..... bring on the mexicans.

From Wiki:

New housing built on the 70-acre (280,000 m2) Cabrini–Green site will include 30% public-housing replacement homes and 20% "workforce affordable" housing, while many adjacent developments (almost all targeted at luxury buyers) include 20% affordable housing, half targeted as public-housing replacement, with a goal of 505 replacement units built off-site.

I have walked past these places. If you bought luxury in there, you were an idiot, but at least you got die-versity. Walking by every other unit you can here ShaNaeNae in there screaming at "hers chidrin/yoofs".I can only imagine what it is like at night.

Anonymous said...

I am soooo glad you continue on! Congratulations on beginning your Fifth Year!

IcePeople said...

Congratulations on beginning your Fifth Year! Keep on bringing the light to the world!

Anonymous said...

So, this Roland Jones, who appears 75% WHITE (the part that enables him to achieve anything) can't explain the failure? I notice his stupid comment....."prisons breed lawlessness" and could not help realize that Mr. Jones is an idiot.

Cabrini-Green did not create the slum. The people created the slum in Cabrini-Green. These thousands of Nigers were GIVEN, by the WHTIE MAN, homes with bathrooms and kitchens and lights, etc. And what do the nigers do? Destroy it.

Then when a "White" company wants to create jobs for these very same nigers, what do they do? They do the typical black -man-shakedown.

I can see this Niger Preacher in my mind. Purple suit, yellow tie, big honking sunglasses, and this being the 70's, he had a hat on, fur trimmed, etc., Afro sheen dripping from his 'Fro. Smelled of cheap cigars, cheap booze and cheap cologne. Makes me want to puke.

Oh, and of course he will be clutching the squid book and quoting the squid book while he performs his shakedown.

Mr. Jones, lawlessness creates prisons. A prison is a structure. It is steel, sand, cement, wires and insulation. Nothing more. Nothing less. Lawlessness is an action. Concrete Block Buildings (prisons) can not act. They can not express lawlessness, you fucking idiot.

PEOPLE behave lawlessly, you fucking idiot. I had to waste my time reading this completely stupid statement by this Negro and then I realized I am seeing inside the black mind. A mind that is incapable of knowing that PEOPLE behave in a lawless manner and no building can make them do it.

The problem with Black people is Black people.

Another thing. WHere is the organization for White McDonald owners, Mr. Uppity Negro? Ah, yes. Dat be rayciss. These nigers are always so proud to join and push their BLACK this and BLACK that organization, but you can imagine the chimp-out if any White Man proposed an identical organization for White people. Dat be rayciss.

Californian said...

The first trouble came almost immediately when a local black preacher and a so-called “activist,” backed up by young men from the projects, began pressuring the owner-operator, Andrew Davis, for jobs and favors in what was basically a shakedown scheme.

i.e., standard operating procedure for BRA. "Preachers" and "activists" shaking down business (or government) for some special program, and then using the threat of violence as a lever to get their way.

Meantime, McDonald's "misjudged" the situation in Cabrini-Green: no economic viability, much violent crime, and the rest of Chicago avoiding the area like the plague.

You wonder if McDonald's could have been so naive as to think things could have been otherwise. Or if they were not naive--just deluded by ideology.

josh said...

Cabrini-green is gone;but THEY are still here...

Anonymous said...

CENTURION here:

Let us not forget, this token Negro, Mr. Jones, was an affirmative action franchise "owner". He got his start BECAUSE he had skin that wasn't white.

You can bet that McDonald's gave him his location(s), advanced him the money, handled his orders, his payrolls, his scheduling until even he, a negro, could mimic the actions of a real White franchise owner.

This token thinks he is something. He came into a corporation already rich and successful with a formula they spent years developing. So, Mr. Uppity Negro gets handed to him an ideal situation......just because he is not white.

As for McDonald's being 365Negro. Well, more and more Whites are catching on to the garbage served as food. The McDonald's corporation is not that stupid and they can see the diet changes taking place in white middle class America. It is no longer cool to go there to eat and it is really NOT cool to take your kids there.

In my social circle, my Wife tells me that NO half-wit White mom will let her kids eat that crap. McDonald's, though unsaid by them, is niger food. Whites don't eat it and those who do are looked upon as white trash.

McDonald's will be the feeding trough for Aztecs, Bantus, Mayans, Inca's, and those fat obese people from Fiji who swell up lie a couch when they eat the "western diet". Serves them right, Don Ho. And as more and more of these mud people "eat" there, it will drive the rest of the Whites away.

Just like a neighborhood. Once it gets to be about 15% black clientele, then their is natural White Flight. It doesn't take a White mom long to figure out it is unnatural and uncomfortable to take her family there, try and sit and eat, when monkeys and apes are all about her. Most Liberal Whites won't even know why the next time "they won't go there" and will have some silly reason like..."I don't like the parking"...."let's try someplace new !!!". "It's just so crowded there"..(Never a complaint when all the kids running around your table were White, but now that they are black.......well...????)

Liberal whites make me sick since they are just as rayciss as us but won't be hones with themselves or us or the negroes. They just want good schools and nice shopping. In other words, they want no nigers just like we do.

Anonymous said...

The Sub-Saharan African population is exploding. Itz projected to be a billion soon. As soon as the Mexican population stops crossing the border our leaders will start importing the excess African blacks because You Know "we are all created equal"!

The American population also is exploding. At the turn of the century there were something like 8.8 million blacks in the USA. Currently there are something like 38 million blacks. Google "Growth rate for black population surpasses U.S. average". Soon there will be 50 million blacks. Our problems will exacerbated in every town city state. Meanwhile we keep running farther away. They keep following us courtesy of our leaders who live in gated communities.

Anonymous said...

Mr. Kersey:

Could I suggest your next move is to form a White organization?

We need one badly.

Lorraine said...

I second that!

White Mom in VA

Anonymous said...

Ret' LAPD here. Keep up the great work Paul, your work is very much appreciated.

Californian said...

Ret' LAPD here.

Good to see you back!

Anonymous said...

Any news from Oklahoma with the tornadoes and all? Rioting, looting, breakdown of civilization ala New Orleans?

rjp said...

CENTURION said:

Let us not forget, this token Negro, Mr. Jones, was an affirmative action franchise "owner". He got his start BECAUSE he had skin that wasn't white.

Everything was waived. The franchise fees. The asset requirements. Any you are probably right that McD-Corp covered his ass until he was very profitable. They were GIVEN things an upper middle class white male could never afford to purchase the rights to.

(Never a complaint when all the kids running around your table were White, but now that they are black.......well...????)

I do some work for a retiree on the Northside on weekends. Usually get done at about 4:30 and catch the bus to go home. If it is a nice day, almost as a rule I get off the bus at the Lincoln Park Zoo and walk the last 1.5 miles home. Lincoln Park Zoo is free to visit and closes at 5, get it. Sorry, I can't be on a bus with a bunch of black kids.

I was on a commuter train once and a black fambily with three kids enters the car. Two white girls then leave the car to go to another car and one girl says "I don't understand why you hate kids so much." Then the black kids noise started along with the black baby crying. I followed them to the next car .... Couldn't get a seat near "the girl that hated kids" but would have liked to have met her.

JB said...

Kersey,

"Our job is to survive"?

Jebus, sir, the defeatism in that sentiment is DISGUSTING.

You're obviously feeling a bit...down?

Well, thanks to you, I, along with SO MANY OTHERS have found the moxie to not only SURVIVE, but to have the where-withal to endeavor to THRIVE and TRIUMPH.

We've not been on the best of terms lately, but dammit, kudos to you and yours for all the important work, the heavy lifting, and the emotional toll this site must take on you.

Thank you, thank you, thank you, for everything you've done here in all these years.

Never let BRA get you down.

We've got your back.

Best as always.

John Brown

Anonymous said...

Congrats Paul from here in NC. I really think this blog could be the start of something great, a massive movement of truth and facts that cannot be disputed. BRA collapse!

Sorry to go off topic, but have yall heard about the security Miami is using to keep "urban beach weekend" safe?? HILARIOUS! Using 140k army vehicles with infra-red HAHA!

Check it out yall

http://miami.cbslocal.com/2013/05/21/exclusive-look-at-urban-beach-week-security-measures/#comments

Proud in NC

Anonymous said...

Check out DrudgeReport. A black Muslim slaughters a UK soldier With a knife and a machete.

Anonymous said...

Happy Anniversary PK!

Anonymous said...

your site has meant a lot to me. thank you, man. i'm very glad you continue on. "not even McDonalds was spared" - brilliant writing as always!

Anonymous said...

It's not just fast-food franchises, it's many other things too. Back around 1988, a Chrysler engineer with inside Ford connections told me that the Detroit area dealership owned by Mel Farr had never been profitable despite massive support from Ford. For years, Ford would not let him go bankrupt because it would be called "racist". They finally called it quits in 2002.

Anonymous said...

Another liberal pipe dream social engineering gon awry? Wait until they attempt to power the nation with windmills and solar cells.

Happy Anniversary!

Anonymous said...

The White to black population ratio was approximately 7 to 1 when I was a kid in the 70's.
Today it's about 5 to 1 and the latest census report indicates that blacks are excreting almost a third as many future feral sluts and thugs as White people are producing future First World people.

7 to 1
5 to 1
3 to 1

It's such a tragic and horrific disaster in the making that most Whites don't even want to think about it.












Anonymous said...

The corner lot at Halsted and Division is still empty! Not all the housing is up and my guess is it will never be. Why would anyone pay market rate and live w tyrone and lafonda blocking the doirway everyday all day because they got no job not a thing to do but watch thier white neighbors come and go so they know when to rob them.
The British School is right up the street and many white urban pioneers live in the nearby converted warehouses to aviod the high rent Lincoln Park area just a few blocks up, but never could I live w these mutts blocking the halls and doorways all day

Jay Santos said...

Congratulations PK. You do tremendous work with complete reliability. You must be white.

Thanks for all you do for us.

AnalogMan said...

Paul,

Happy anniversary and congratulations from South Africa. Thanks for your work. You are a racial treasure.

Anonymous said...

I work as a field service engineer and travel extensively. Was hungry, driving and saw that it was pushing 1:30 and said time for lunch. Pulled off the freeway and into a McDonald's thinking that the lunch time rush would be over. They had two bus loads of black kids running around in there. The noise level was deafening (much worse than most machine shops). A trucker had thought like me that the rush hour for lunch was over.

Anonymous said...

I have a lot of DWL friends. A big thing with them now is "Organic" - for some of them, vegan, vegetarian, or on the other end gluten free or paleo. Most of this is pretty pointless dietary faddism, but in any case McDonald's doesn't cater to it and so it amounts to a de facto boycott. So even they won't eat there. I think I've stopped in about once a year in the last decade on average - it's just not really a place to go, for all the reasons mentioned here.

"I was on a commuter train once and a black fambily with three kids enters the car. Two white girls then leave the car to go to another car and one girl says "I don't understand why you hate kids so much." Then the black kids noise started along with the black baby crying."

This is funny because I see black women always bragging about what good moms they are compared to white women and how white women's children always behave badly in public and they do a bad job of raising them by not screaming at them at the top of their lungs.

Anonymous said...

One of the assumptions of libertarian policy analysts is that human nature is the same for everybody. Thus, housing projects will *everywhere* drag people down because of perverse incentives.

Problem is, human nature *isn't* the same for everybody.

Lived in NYC for 8 years, including 4 at Columbia U., just south of Harlem. Harlem is exactly what readers of this site would expect it to be. Went a few times just to check it out; wouldn't go back if you paid me.

Lived in Taipei for 8 years. Once, when my washing machine broke down, I starting going to a huge public housing complex nearby. Its construction was *exactly* like those in big American cities: huge, ugly concrete blocks.

Result? Everything was fine! In the daytime, only old people are there, because the young people are WORKING. Made a few emergency laundry runs in the early A.M. completely without fear or incident. A few really old guys gave me a whoa-a-foreigner stare, but I was not once jeered at or treated badly. When the people there found out I can speak Chinese, they actually chatted with me amiably.

The only difference I can see between the housing complexes in NYC and Taipei: the people inside.

Anonymous said...

But there are 3 black women for every black man. When do we break even w the young black men being killed and the obese women dying in thier 50's from chronic disease?
Even the children ate more likely to die in childhood

Californian said...

Could I suggest your next move is to form a White organization?

A pro-white organization is needed. And one which would avoid the errors of the past. And mobilize the strengths of the present. To fight for the future. This would be an excellent topic for a separate blog.

Ex Detroiter said...

Thank you for your hard work Paul. Everything you say about the D is spot on. I have done my best to spread the word about SBPDL.

Constructive Feedback said...

Mr Kersey:

Are you merely angered that every time you see a pure little White kid demanding that her parents take her to McDonalds for a happy meal that this is contributing the the Executive Compensation of a BLACK MAN as the kid helps him meet his performance targets?


http://cdn.blackenterprise.com/wp-content/blogs.dir/1/files/2012/03/Don-Thompson-300x232.jpg

Anonymous said...

" Most of this is pretty pointless dietary faddism" - its also local food only, so a rejection of the largely foreign workforce at say walmart.

Ronny said...

Only Mickey D's I ever knew of that closed was in Memphis,TN.,about a mile from graceland.Real shitty 'hood-Filthy,a bunch of creeps just hanging out all day doing nothing productive.Shut the damn place down and leveled it.Now a big gas-station is there.Right on Bellevue.

Anonymous said...

Discovered SBPDL last year. Can't live without it. Pure inspiration...recommend it to all the appropriate parties and paleez don't quit now. Kudos from tbe Virginia Polar Bear.