Posted on 03/07/2022 3:22:25 PM PST by blam
The Santa Barbara City Council has given restaurant Chick-fil-A 90 days to fix its traffic problems on State Street or face the possibility of being declared a public nuisance. Why?
A local woman who “never liked Chick-fil-A,” not because of their product, but “for their social positions,” found a reason to cancel them.
Independent.com reported:
What spurred Hobbs to local action, however, was watching the upper State Street restaurant’s overcrowded drive-thru line spill constantly and precariously into the road, a public safety issue that has persisted for the better part of the decade, unabated, with no apparent consequences for either the culprit drivers or their fried-chicken-flinging enablers. “The idea of a big company coming into our community and using the main street of our city as a private parking lot is not acceptable,” she said.
Can the council sanction Chick-fil-A for doing too much business? One woman’s activism nearly brought the issue to a vote of the Santa Barbara City Council in favor of ousting Chick-fil-A, before even considering alternatives.
Instead, Chick-fil-A now has until June 7th to come up with solutions.
But is it warranted or even legal for elected city officials to hand-pick which businesses survive and thrive, and which businesses are forced out?
At the heart of the issue is not just the “public nuisance” Chick-fil-A may or may not be responsible for, but that the City Council very nearly voted to force the successful and popular business to vacate the legally held premises, rather than working with the business to come up with solutions.
These council members should be called on the carpet for even entertaining a decision to oust Chick-fil-A without due process. Do they understand their roles as elected officials? Why would they make the knee-jerk leap to authoritarianism at the first opportunity?
Consider this thoughtful letter to the Santa Barbara City Council from a local Santa Barbara business owner:
“One would hope that before you vote to restrict the operations of a private business, affecting the owners, employees, and commercial property landlords you might take a moment to reconsider your actions.
For one thing, it would be refreshing if you would simply clearly state your real objections to this particular business. Tyler Hayden’s commentary in the Independent seems to be pretty honest about what is behind the real opposition to Chick-fil-A.
Why can’t any of you be so honest? You also might want to consider the precedent you will be setting. Going forward, will elected officials like yourselves be empowered to alter contracts, rescind legal permissions, and to punish businesses for the sin of being successful?
A City Council vote to shut down Chick-fil-A’s legal drive thru using a “public nuisance” claim will clearly lead to multiple lawsuits against the City.
There will be serious 5th Amendment issues about unconstitutional “takings.”
There will be clear 14th Amendment issues about “due process.”
And the potential for many more claims. It is irresponsible for elected officials to expose the public purse to potential damage claims with such questionable actions.
This is not how “representative democracy” is supposed to work. Rather than picking winners and losers, city governments should be empowering their staffs to find solutions and mitigations to issues like this one.
It is not the job of an elected official at any level to vindictively punish businesses for being “too successful” for whatever reasons.
Step back from the brink. Sit down with staff, engineers, and the business and property owners and find potential mitigations.If you don’t, it will be clear to all that you are driven by ideology, not reason.
In the meantime, let’s talk “public nuisance”—see below.”
The business owner shared several photos of homeless vagrants living on the streets, urinating in public, congregating outside businesses, camping under trees, and feces on the sidewalk.
Can Santa Barbara shut a business down for being too successful? Santa Barbara residents have shared with the Globe that several members of the Santa Barbara City Council won’t actually say why they’re doing this, but they have schemed without any public planning to shut down the Downtown section of State St. completely to traffic for the past 2 years because they want a “promenade.”
Could it be time for a regime change in Santa Barbara? As the business owner said, “This is not how ‘representative democracy’ is supposed to work.
Pack up and leave.
So a rug muncher is angry at the local Chic-fil-a because they have an overflow drive-thru?
We have the same problem at a Starbucks drive thru near where I live.
Weird how people are willing to work for them. Maybe I’ll confront a drive through worker and post the video.
Ah yes, that sanctimonious idiot who did that wrecked his family’s life. Wouldn’t you think one of his liberal friends would give him a job as a reward for pulling that stunt??? But none did.
To be honest, it is a problem at most Chik Fil-A’s. The question is should the street in front of a Chik Fil-A double as a parking lot? Obviously the answer is no. It is unfair to other drivers just looking to get by. Here’s one solution: Have an employee out at the drive through entrance waving cars through. If the lane is full, the employee puts up a “Lane full” sign. Then the cars have to circle until enough cars have passed that it can open up. Also consider expanding online ordering to the point where you can just pull up and grab your food.
Chick-fil-A is great but their drive thru does move slowly and the backup is a pain. The one nearest to me is in parking lot, and I’m surprised there’s not more fender benders with everyone swerving around the line.
We had a new Popeye’s Chicken open up last year and I’m not sure if it was a design problem, or just the thrill of more takeout chicken, but the traffic would backup from the drive through out on our busiest commercial four lane street. It must of caused a dozen accidents and hundreds of near misses. Of course it never occurred to people that if you couldn’t fit in the drive through lane to just go inside. I’m not sure if they redesigned the drive up or the initial buzz wore off. I couldn’t believe that people would back up road for a quarter mile just to get their chicken.
“Chick-fil-A’s legal drive thru using a “public nuisance”. I’ve been there and yes, the drive through is a nuisance. More nuisances: In-n-Out on Thompson Ventura, Outlet Center on Carmen in Camarillo, and Shell on Upper State Street in SB. All four places have cars in lines that are blocking traffic.
Relax. Slow down. Welcome to America where good places get tons of customers.
Hate filled garbage.
Around here the CFAs have all retrofitted the drive-thrus with all kinds of improvements that I am sure were seriously old-school industrial engineered. Probably by some guys from GA Tech.
If I had to guess, that sort of minor modification construction is too much brain damage in Callyforniyay, so you get the overflow.
We’ll, they have reengineered the drive thru but there’s only so much they can do. Space is limited, Californey or no.
A popular restaurant near me has a small parking lot, so customers would frequently park in the lot next door. So the restaurant posted a sign, "WARNING: Customers who park in 's parking lot will be towed."
We have traffic issues every school day due to parents lining up to drop off and pick up their kids. It is a real nuisance. Everyone knows it. Everyone hates it. Yet we drive on (slowly). Poor planning by city manager (shocker). But kids gotta get to school.
Adam Smith, ... I love it when Virtue Signaling Leftist A**holes suicide their careers, homes and family thinking they’re clever.
Sounds like you need rezoning for more businesses. Within about 5 miles of my house, there are 5-6 CFAs! And they’re all pretty busy. The mobile app has been a godsend with either walk up pickup or curbside delivery, where they’re still doing that.
In and out does that has a person taking orders, makes the line go faster.
There’s PLENTY of businesses there. It’s a strip mall.
It happens in our town quite often, too. BUSY 6-lane that turns into 5 when CFA is really packed. CFA has a two-lane order section that merges into a one-lane pay/pickup section. There are many parking spots for app customers, but only a few are used. They are the spaces that people used to park in while going INSIDE, but that’s no longer an option.
I will NEVER start anything bad for CFA - they are great people.
I would, however, really like to see them buy a section of the lot next door and make more drive-thru access. I could get behind tickets for those on the busy street blocking that lane. If there’s not enough room to get off the road, go around the block!
This is REALLY something that the business and the town should work on TOGETHER.
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