About a year and a half ago, Chick-Fil-A joined the Chamber of Commerce in Mountain View, California. This is notable only because there wasn’t a Chick-Fil-A in the area. Mountain View is located in the heart of Silicon Valley which is known to be part of the greater San Francisco Bay Area. Naturally, this entire area, especially towns located on the west side of the bay, is quite progressive.
I am board member of the Chamber of Commerce. One of our duties is to approve new members to the organization. When this came up, it was well before the recent national brouhaha caused by their Chief Operating Officer, Dan Cathy due to his quote about same-sex marriage that those who "have the audacity to define what marriage is about" were "inviting God's judgment on our nation.” No, back in early 2011, the only real controversy about Chick-Fil-A was really a) is their food healthier than say, a McDonalds, and b) do they really contribute (as an organization) to anti-gay causes?
Because I’m usually kept up to date on all things progressive (thanks Daily Kos!), I mentioned (b) to the board. We all came to the consensus that (b) was not a disqualifying reason for their membership. Fast forward a year and a few months and all heck is breaking loose with their public relations. Concurrently, the City of Mountain View’s zoning department approved the conversion plans of a Sizzler restaurant to a Chick-Fil-A on one of our major traffic thoroughfares.
This didn’t sit well with some of our neighbors, and two different groups came up with the necessary funds ($1,000) to appeal the permit. Because they couldn’t appeal the decision based on legal first amendment rights of the family that owns Chick-Fil-A, they appealed on the idea of the restaurant being a drive through (presently, the building is not outfitted with a drive through lane). On Tuesday of last week, our City Council upheld the appeal, and Chick-Fil-A was denied their restaurant. Or to be more clear, they were denied their drive through, which they determined was necessary to make the finances work at that location. As of this moment, there will be no Chick-Fil-A in Mountain View.
Read the news article in our local paper, The Mountain View Voice, for more details. I for one am happy with the decision.