AFTER COUPLE'S STRUGGLE, MCDONALD'S GETS POINT.Byline: DENNIS McCARTHY Dennis McCarthy may refer to:
It is 5:30 on a beautiful early May morning, and Ron Noun 1. Ron - a Chadic language spoken in northern Nigeria Bokkos, Daffo West Chadic - a group of Chadic languages spoken in northern Nigeria; Hausa in the most important member Ribstein is on the phone in his bedroom again, placing a wake-up call to a few of those deaf ears. Some people are awakened a·wak·en tr. & intr.v. a·wak·ened, a·wak·en·ing, a·wak·ens To awake; waken. See Usage Note at wake1. [Middle English awakenen, from Old English in the morning by the sounds of birds chirping chirp n. A short, high-pitched sound, such as that made by a small bird or an insect. intr.v. chirped, chirp·ing, chirps To make a short, high-pitched sound. , music playing on their radio or the smell of percolating coffee. Ron Ribstein and his roommate, Rochelle Wyner, start their day with the sound of a trash truck pulling up at dawn to empty the Dumpster from a McDonald's on Balboa Balboa, town (1990 pop. 2,751), Colón prov., in the former Panama Canal Zone, on the Gulf of Panama. The port for Panama City, Balboa was the administrative headquarters of the Panama Canal Zone. It was also the site of a U.S. navy base (closed 1999). Boulevard in Van Nuys. They go to bed at night in their McLennan Avenue home, directly behind the restaurant listening to loud music from the cars idling in the drive-through lane waiting for their Big Macs and fries. The McDonald's Corp. has promised these neighbors and city officials during the past four years that it would mitigate mit·i·gate v. To moderate in force or intensity. mit  i·ga tion n. the problems
as part of its conditional use permit on the property.
But the big daddy of fast-food chains had never quite gotten around to it. So Ribstein gets on the phone in his bedroom every morning just to remind McDonald's and city officials, including Councilwoman Laura Chick chick abbreviation for chicken (1). , that he and Rochelle are still out here waiting for relief. ``All I ever get is their answering machines at work, but at least they can hear what I'm mad about,'' Ribstein says, holding up the phone to the noise of a trash truck lifting up a Dumpster. ``Still, it would be nice if I had their home numbers so I could wake them up at 5:30 a.m., like I'm up.'' All the players stood in the hallway outside hearing room 1540 in downtown L.A. on the morning of May 7. Ribstein was there with some of his neighbors. Representatives from McDonald's and the city were there, including an aide to Councilwoman Chick's office. All of them waiting for their chance to address the Board of Zoning Appeals on an appeal that Ribstein had filed to stop McDonald's from getting another conditional use permit for a covered children's play area at its Balboa Boulevard location. It cost Ribstein $71 to file, and he wasn't fooling himself on his chances. He was riding the long shot in this race. The city hadn't listened to him before, why would it listen now? ``We're going to lose,'' Ribstein said to a few of his neighbors, watching McDonald's officials in deep conversation with city officials. ``They've got too much juice.'' He was wrong. ``A whole series of actors from McDonald's didn't get the message that you have to be a good neighbor when you have residential units behind you,'' said Jon Perica, an associate zoning administrator. ``The bottom line was that we gave them chances, and they kept blowing them,'' said Perica, who has handled this case the past four years and was the recipient of dozens of Ribstein's early morning phone calls. ``What struck me throughout the whole procedure,'' Perica said Friday, ``was how patient and responsible the residents had been, how they had kept meticulous me·tic·u·lous adj. 1. Extremely careful and precise. 2. Extremely or excessively concerned with details. [From Latin met records. ``All they wanted to do was have the city conditions complied with,'' he said. ``But everybody at McDonald's the last four years had kissed them off. I'd be mad, too.'' The Board of Zoning Appeals sent a message to McDonald's, warning the fast-food chain that unless it solved the residents' problems, the board might consider yanking the location's permits. ``The information, documentation and evidence provided to the board has been sufficient to warrant further investigation and review for a possible initiation of a revocation The recall of some power or authority that has been granted. Revocation by the act of a party is intentional and voluntary, such as when a person cancels a Power of Attorney that he has given or a will that he has written. proceeding against the use,'' the board wrote. Chick said much the same thing in a May 16 letter to Jeff Schwartz, regional vice president for McDonald's Corporation. ``I agree with the board, and I am requesting the office of zoning administration to proceed with a nuisance nuisance, in law, an act that, without legal justification, interferes with safety, comfort, or the use of property. A private nuisance (e.g., erecting a wall that shuts off a neighbor's light) is one that affects one or a few persons, while a public nuisance (e.g. revocation hearing,'' she wrote. ``Given my excellent experiences with McDonald's corporate responsibility in the past, I am personally astonished a·ston·ish tr.v. as·ton·ished, as·ton·ish·ing, as·ton·ish·es To fill with sudden wonder or amazement. See Synonyms at surprise. by the lack of interest in the community that McDonald's has shown at this location,'' she added. The only response McDonald's offered to this story comes from Jeanne Hardemion-Kemp, the corporation's community affairs manager. ``As soon as this was brought to my attention, I took immediate action to assure we would take the appropriate measures to rectify rec·ti·fy v. 1. To set right; correct. 2. To refine or purify, especially by distillation. the situation and address the community issues,'' Hardemion-Kemp said. ``We have assured Councilwoman Chick that we will fully comply with all the conditions imposed, and that there is no need for the city to proceed with a revocation action,'' she added. ``McDonald's is 100 percent committed to being the best neighbor it can be,'' Hardemion-Kemp said. On the job for only a month, Hardemion-Kemp said she would not comment on ``past decisions'' made by other McDonald's officials. No one else from the corporation would comment, she said. It was quiet at dawn Friday on McLennan Avenue. The trash Dumpster abutting Ron Ribstein's back wall finally has been moved to another location, and most mornings the trash truck comes later, around 7 a.m. Signs have been posted for drive-through traffic to keep the noise down. One of the drive-through entrances is now open only until 10 p.m., but it's the one near an apartment building, not near his property, so it's still loud at night. ``They're even painting the place, but that was never one of the things we complained about,'' Ribstein added. The neighbors are vowing to press for more from McDonald's, and to get the drive-through closed down after 10 p.m. so they can fall asleep with something other than loud music pounding in their ears. They've already collected 25 signatures of nearby residents on a petition to prompt the city zoning administrator to move forward with revocation hearings on the site. The way these people see it, the city spent the past four years looking the other way for McDonald's, and now that they've finally got their attention, they don't want to lose it. MEMO MEMO Memorandum MEMO Medicines Monitoring Unit (University of Dundee) MEMO Medical Equipment Management Office MEMO Mission-Essential Maintenance Only MEMO Mission-Essential Maintenance Operations MEMO Mental Modeler : Dennis McCarthy's column appears Tuesday, Thursday, Friday and Sunday Sunday: see Sabbath; week. . CAPTION(S): Photo Photo: Rochelle Wyner and Ron Ribstein peer over their wall at the neighboring neigh·bor n. 1. One who lives near or next to another. 2. A person, place, or thing adjacent to or located near another. 3. A fellow human. 4. Used as a form of familiar address. v. McDonald's drive-through. Michael Owen
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