Progress

Well, that is that then, the end of my quiet sleepy suburb! We have just been taken over by the golden arches, there was a huge uproar and much protest from the locals both next door and further afield to the proposed eye sore. There is a school on either side, a medical practice, specialist suites and a chemist across the road, so really it could not have been better placed...

Complaints went to the local council and further up the bureaucratic chain to the state planning commission, with no success. How can the common man go up against the corporate power of McDonald's and Caltex? The Caltex garage is the partner in crime to the golden arches all we need now is a liquor store, and we will have the full set. Don’t worry though there has been a planning request for a liquor store. Nonetheless given that land is still for lease on the site maybe they did not achieve their licence; even so, only time will tell. I for one would not be at all surprised if a liquor store pops up alongside the golden arches.

You might ask what effect this suburban growth has on me granted I don’t eat hamburgers, though I do fill my car with Caltex fuel. Well in the fast food stakes not much, however, I’m a walker and when walking through the sleepy suburb, I have noticed a huge   increase in the rubbish distributed along the roadside, of which 95% is from the said hamburger shop, bags, containers and wrappers most of the rubbish contained the remnants of a variety of the Macca’s menu. It must be good if at least half of every purchase is on the road. Do they get to the drive through and become so over awed with the menu and the promise of tastes like no other that an overabundance is purchased just in case they miss something yummy?

Of course with the drive-through service comes an increase in traffic, this morning I was returning from the shops as I turned the corner I had to brake and come to a fairly quick stop. There were cars going into the garage and McDonald's while an old lady was trying to turn into the chemist passing another car on its way out what a shambles,  we were saying when it opened it is an accident waiting to happen. Now we have had not one accident but several already in the four weeks since it all opened, I guess we can expect many more, in the coming months and years. What worries me is it will more than likely be some old folks as they leave the doctor or chemist they have been attending for the past two decades, who will end up on the front of some yob's car as he stuffs his face with burgers and chips while not paying a blind bit of attention to the road. I ask you what price progress?