I’m not sure if I’m quoting it correctly, but there’s a saying that goes something like “If it looks like a duck, sounds like a duck, and acts like a duck, then it must be a duck.” In this case, the duck that I’m talking about is the McDonald’s on Moorland Road, across from Brookfield Square. If current plans go through, the new McDonald’s, while still serving the same food and providing the same service that we’ve come to rely on, will be “unrecognizable” as a McDonald’s.
(JS-Online (Waukesha): Brandon Lorenz, “Council approves rezoning for upscale McDonald’s,” posted May 16, 2006)Plans are in the works to raze the existing restaurant and rebuild it. In contrast to the existing building, the new one will be earth-toned, will have a sloped roof, and (this is what killed me) WILL NOT HAVE ANY GOLDEN ARCHES. Instead, the arches would appear “on tower windows as colorless glass etchings.”
(JS-Online (Waukesha): Lisa Sink, “New McDonald’s will be Brookfield-ized,” posted April 20, 2006) Now, I know this is not late-breaking news, but does this strike anyone else as just … wrong?
Sentimentality may play a part in my reaction to this news. A few years ago, the powers that be tore down the McDonald’s that used to be one of my high school haunts. Now, they’re going after the one that my husband worked at in high school. Back then, McDonald’s was about the only game in town for high school students looking for employment unrelated to family-owned businesses. I believe there were only two McDonald’s in Brookfield at that time, the one on Moorland, which was near Brookfield Central, and the one on Lilly and Capitol, which was near Brookfield East and is no longer. So, despite the uniforms (remember the polyester two-piece numbers, with blue and white stripes, complete with the paper cap?), students flocked to apply there. McDonald’s was the place to go after football games and basketball games. The place would be so packed that security, termed “rent-a-cops” by students, had to be called in for crowd control. If you didn’t have any food in front of you, you were kicked out of your table and out of the restaurant. There was many a game night that my girlfriends and I nursed a few packages of fries until the basketball/football player someone had a crush on finally appeared. I have to confess that it made me a little melancholy to see it close. It was a reminder of a time when life was easier.
Is a McDonald’s really a McDonald’s without the golden arches? (Well, okay, I guess it could be, but it’s the principle of the thing, people.) When you’re on a trip with your family in unfamiliar parts and the troops are restless due to hunger, isn’t one of the things you start looking for the golden “M”? Children who can’t even read yet know what those telltale arches mean. (Yes, I know the arguments on childhood obesity, but in the finicky world of kiddie cuisine, sometimes only a Happy Meal will pass the smell test.) I realize that the Moorland restaurant is in need of an update. Unless I miss my guess, it’s the oldest McDonald’s in the city. I even applaud the fact that a great deal of thought is being put into how the new look will fit with the overall plan for that area. The development of the Bluemound Road corridor and the resulting urban sprawl has long been pointed to as an example of poor city planning. It is heartening to see that Brookfield has learned from its mistakes. Where once there was building on top of building, now there is concern for environment, utilization, and cohesiveness. What concerns me now is whether we’re starting to head towards the opposite extreme when we sacrifice a beloved symbol standing for tradition and nostalgia for the sake of urban planning aesthetics.
Modernization. That I can understand. Colorless glass etchings. That I’m having a hard time wrapping my head around.
