City Offers to Buy Problematic Haight Street McDonald’s to Build Affordable Housing

The City of San Francisco has offered to buy the McDonald’s restaurant at 700-730 Stanyan Street (at Haight), a move to shut down the problematic restaurant and replace it with affordable housing or literally anything else after a period of neighborhood input. The idea was proposed by Supervisor London Breed, and a McDonald’s spokesperson confirmed that the business, whose property is owned by the McDonald’s corporation, had received and was reviewing the city’s offer.

McDonald’s has been a super-sized headache in the area for years. It was most recently the scene of a shooting last week, renewing public outcry. In 2015, City Attorney Dennis Herrera threatened to sue McDonald’s over the location, citing the burden to the city with 1,000 calls to police recorded in a 3-year period.

“In the past seven months alone SFPD officers have arrested individuals on at least 11 separate occasions selling or possessing illegal narcotics on or directly in front of your Property,” Herrera wrote in his 2015 letter to McDonald’s. “In the last six months the police have recovered more than 100 doses of LSD, over two pounds of marijuana, 88.5 grams of psilocybin (psychedelic mushrooms), more than half of a pound of marijuana edibles, and hashish from drug dealers selling their products on your Property.”

And they talk about the secret menu at In-N-Out! In the end, McDonald’s and its local franchisee settled the suit for $40,000, agreeing to add more security and better lighting. A new franchisee took over management of the location in January.

• SF’s happy deal: Buy McDonald’s outlet, build housing [Chronicle]
• SF Supervisor Proposes City Buy Crime-Riddled McDonald's Site [NBC Bay Area]
• SF City Attorney 'prepared to sue' Stanyan Street McDonald's [Examiner]
• Man wounded in shooting near Golden Gate Park [Chronicle]