A McDonald’s Case Study for Land Use Policies in Providence

James Kennedy examines a controversial development that includes a McDonald’s in the economically troubled neighborhood of Olneyville in Providence. Kennedy applies the rational approach to gauging the efficiency of land uses in value-per-acre, as practiced by Urban3, as well as the “McDonaldization Theory” of George Ritzer.

The concern is that in some cases any development might seem like progress, when in fact “at least sometimes businesses like this are one step forward and then three steps back.”