Lion in Winter

Anyway...

Not mowing the verges is a very good thing for flowers, animals, insects, the lot.

https://www.theguardian.com/environm...owing-councils

https://www.hazelwoodlandscapes.com/...dflower-meadow

https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-northern-ireland-34285859

I can't think of a single ecological case to be made for McDonalds.

SultanOfSwing

Wait, you mean allowing native plants to grow and flourish encourages local fauna to thrive? Surely not.

WGAF if a verge has been mowed or not anyway? As long as there is no litter, why should it matter?

Lion in Winter

Who woulda thunk it, eh? I love seeing it personally - verges full of flowers and bees and butterflies and other insects and small mammals, so many of them endangered. Even hedgehogs are endangered ffs. No mowing, no spraying - it all adds up and helps. They are doing that in the centers of some roundabouts now, too.

Get people out litter-picking instead of driving mowers and sprayers, as you say. Better yet, don't throw rubbish out the window.

scrubbedexpat142

That's great - until Vicki Pollard trips over in the long grass & sues for compo!

Lion in Winter

Just as long as she doesn't squash any flowers or small mammals on her way down.

SultanOfSwing

Clearing litter is much more important, IMO. Personally I don't care if someone mows their own grass, much less if local authorities mess with the grass on a berm or a verge. Native areas should look like, well, native areas. The small endangered mammals are nature's lawnmowers anyway.

scrubbedexpat142

Absolutely - in the UK litter was a big enough problem when we left, I understand the problem is even bigger now & in the minds (minds?) of some, long grass verges are an invitation to litter - "' 'cos it don't show see".

SultanOfSwing

Litter is a problem over here too, so the UK isn't alone in that regard, but it does always seem bad when I visit again as well.

The problem here is there is no long grass to hide it because you know Americans melt if they see a blade of grass longer than 4". Nothing more fun than going on a walk in town and seeing a bunch of garbage lining the path. At least the forest preserve do keep their trails as native areas, which is nice, and you don't tend to see so much litter there. I won't even throw an apple core on the ground there because I read somewhere it's actually detrimental to the local wildlife to do that, even though you might think it's fine to leave it for them to eat.

Mempete

IGAF if the verges are mowed... Its called... Spot the traffic cam � ����and the obscured speed sign.. Oh and the small child that has no road sense!! To all those that have not been back for years and have fond dreamy memories ... hmmmm.

SultanOfSwing

Let's ignore for now that it is the responsibility of the driver to look out for small children, be they or be they not concealed by grassy verges - how many small children are actually waiting alongside the kind of roads that have verges in the first place, for their moment to jump out in front of you?

And speed cameras don't tend to be at ground level. Unless the grass is reaching heights of 6' or more, that's a flimsy reason. I like to drive fast too, but the preservation of native green spaces outranks my right to impunity. Let the grass grow.

scrubbedexpat142

And I thought it was just the Brits that are neurotic about grass - live & learn!

SultanOfSwing

It was the Brits who started it (I think), but they take it to a whole new level over here.

robtuck

McDonalds in Towns and Cities have a tendency to be owned by a single Franchisee, so it's likely if one decides not to stock a product, all the others in Town will be the same, HQ isn't going to be able to do too much about that.

One thing that did come to mind when I went back the first time, was that I noticed things that you don't notice when you live in among it every day. Litter was a good one - it wasn't any different, it's just that where I moved to is particularly clean. Can't say I went around being overly worried about it when I lived there, but it was noticeable when I returned.

Mempete

Thank You ...those who have noticed! This seems to have divided into those of us who have returned to visit in the last few years and are saddened at the demise, and those who still have dreamy memories of Blighty.
with regard to making complaints to retailers... I find it funny that as soon as I said I was complaining about protecting my sister in law from being ripped off,that went REAL quiet. It seems the conversation turns to those who would protect the rights of McD to abuse it's customers. I would suggest we have shareholders of that company on this site??😁

spouse of scouse

Actually, what you said about your sister in law's experience at the car phone place was that she was ignored, and if she was ignored how could she have been ripped off?
As for McDonald's abusing its customers - how? By not having the variety of burger or fries you wanted?

I hope you have travel insurance, so you can claim for all this unbearable abuse and stress you've been subjected to. There's probably a counselling service available in the US for people who've suffered burger deprivation abuse.