ShivahnUnaware of her barrel shifter privilegeWestern coastal temptressRegistered User, Moderatormod
While I don't really know enough about what's going on to discuss this fully, trying to block the establishment of a mosque is pretty clearly the government interfering with the free exercise of religion. Chick-fil-A is not a house of worship, so it's not implausible that someone would hold views that treat the things differently.
Cities block and control the placement or presence of businesses all the time.
If it's because they've donated to certain political campaigns, that's terrible. Government should control/block the placement/presence of business for better reasons. Preferably reasons that are actually lawful.
Cities block and control the placement or presence of businesses all the time.
If it's because they've donated to certain political campaigns, that's terrible. Government should control/block the placement/presence of business for better reasons. Preferably reasons that are actually lawful.
If a company was proudly touting that they donate to the KKK, would that be enough to block?
No I don't.
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AManFromEarthLet's get to twerk!The King in the SwampRegistered Userregular
Yeah, blocking a business=/=blocking a religious building.
@Melkster I'm not sure what you think would be unlawful about elected officials blocking out businesses from setting up shop near constituents who dislike those businesses.
Generally speaking, that sounds like a very reasonable role for local governments.
kedinik on
I made a game! Hotline Maui. Requires mouse and keyboard.
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AManFromEarthLet's get to twerk!The King in the SwampRegistered Userregular
Also Mayor Meninio's letter says nothing about blocking a building permit.
Nor did that PA city offical's letter.
Are there new ones specifically saying "your application for a permit will be denied based on your comments"?
Nope, they were just asked to reconsider moving into the cities.
And even if they do end up preventing them from moving in, you can't stop them from opening because of their bigotry, but you can stop them from opening in any number of ways. I think it was this thread or the last one where I detailed some of the ways my own town has tweaked zoning to keep certain businesses out, and some of them are quite creative - we used to have a minimum distance between a restaurant and a veterinary clinic, for example, so that in most of the business districts a restaurant needs to get a variance before it can open. The actual process of getting a variance is frequently closed and there's not written rules on it (since it's a pass to break the rules), reasons for allowing/denying one are rarely given, and it's very hard to challenge if you're denied one.
Do you think it's wrong that NYC has done as much as possible to block Walmart?
What is the official line on why? Having that kind of helps. ;p
But really what's troublesome is this, if they do this and succeed we then get to worry about the G.O.P. Governors using that as an excuse to run any Democrat-owned businesses out of their states. They will retaliate and they will go over the top in a way only today's crop of G.O.P. could. The real question we need to be asking isn't so much one about morality but rather one of blowback. Do we have the ability to do this in a way that the response will not end up making America collectively worse?
As long as these remain strongly-worded-letters-of-disapproval I'm on board. But I can't support any active attempt to block them. It would only end in tears for us all.
If the best you can come up with against someone who's patently ignorant is to yell back at him, "Yeah? Well there's BOOKS, and they say you're WRONG!"
Then honestly you're not coming out of this looking great either.
There's a 2011 article on the subject. I don't know how the situation has changed since then, but basically Walmart didn't have concrete plans for where they wanted to place a store but most of the NYC city council was adamantly against it. Of course, blocking Walmart where you don't want it is easy -- just don't zone land for big box stores.
Do you think it's wrong that NYC has done as much as possible to block Walmart?
What is the official line on why? Having that kind of helps. ;p
But really what's troublesome is this, if they do this and succeed we then get to worry about the G.O.P. Governors using that as an excuse to run any Democrat-owned businesses out of their states. They will retaliate and they will go over the top in a way only today's crop of G.O.P. could. The real question we need to be asking isn't so much one about morality but rather one of blowback. Do we have the ability to do this in a way that the response will not end up making America collectively worse?
As long as these remain strongly-worded-letters-of-disapproval I'm on board. But I can't support any active attempt to block them. It would only end in tears for us all.
I sure as hell hope so. I'm ready to escalate this culture wars to the next level. Let's do this!
I was referring to the "zoning businesses we disagree with politically out."
I'm fine if Bumfuck, Alabama wants to stop ordering from Amazon, using Google, and decides to run their local Chipotle out of town. It just means that the only place you're going to be able to eat in Bumfuck are shitty little local diners and Chick-Fil-As.
In a trade war like this, the winners are the cities. And the cities are right, and the shitholes are wrong. So, like I said, let's fucking do this shit.
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AtomikaLive fast and get fucked or whateverRegistered Userregular
I was referring to the "zoning businesses we disagree with politically out."
I'm fine if Bumfuck, Alabama wants to stop ordering from Amazon, using Google, and decides to run their local Chipotle out of town. It just means that the only place you're going to be able to eat in Bumfuck are shitty little local diners and Chick-Fil-As.
In a trade war like this, the winners are the cities. And the cities are right, and the shitholes are wrong. So, like I said, let's fucking do this shit.
Shitty local Southern diners are a endless source of community pride and diabetes, I'll have you know.
Also Mayor Meninio's letter says nothing about blocking a building permit.
Nor did that PA city offical's letter.
Are there new ones specifically saying "your application for a permit will be denied based on your comments"?
I thought there was a Chicago alderman* who said he wouldn't let them build a franchise somewhere near Chicago.
Linky. He says he'll deny them a permit to build unless they show him a written anti-discrimination policy. Which seems kinda odd, because I think that IL counts sexual-orientation as a protected class and state-law already dictates that you cannot discriminate on that basis. I mean, it'd be good to have CFA have an actual anti-discrimination policy, but if the state already says you can't discriminate I'm not sure a statement from the company does much.
* From my understanding an alderman is kinda like the head of a City-County Council, and and he can over-rule a majority vote by the CCC. I could be very mistaken here though...
Christ, the line for Chic-Fil-A near my job is so long it's causing actual traffic jams
It's that damn Michael Berry - he bought 250 chicken sandwiches and was giving them away for free on Westheimer this afternoon. Michael Berry is a conservative radio host based in Houston.
Menino may be able to actually block certain stores. Like Harvard Square for Cambridge, a lot of prime tourist spots are owned by the city, with places losing their lease for all sorts of reasons, including the city just deciding that it wants to shake things up a bit.
Roger Cates told iReport he had lunch at Chick-fil-A in Owensboro, Kentucky, and planned to return with his family for dinner. Political leaders who have criticized the chain, like the mayors of Boston and Chicago, are hypocritical, he said.
"I think it is ironic that the so-called forces of tolerance and inclusion are calling for the exclusion of Chick-fil-A from cities simply because of the beliefs of their chairman. ... People that disagree with me have a right to their opinion, and I have a right to mine," he said.
Sigh. See, that's the thing about using (or appearing to use) your government position to suppress a business. You give people the argument that this is a free speech thing, and not a suppressing gay people thing.
You really can't have any familiarity with this stuff if you think the "You are intolerant of my intolerance" issue has anything to do with what those local politicians said.
That argument has been around forever at this point and comes up with every issue.
This "high ground" you are going on about never existed.
I sure as hell hope so. I'm ready to escalate this culture wars to the next level. Let's do this!
You seem to think that there are enough people in power who share your desire to, if necessary, reduce The South to a parking lot as a response. As they would most likely merit such eventually if we were to really get to the point in partisanship where we had Governors and other elected officials openly violating both the constitution and other various laws just to retaliate in kind to each other's illegal actions. Remember, these people have been preparing for the Apocalypse, do you think they won't take it that far? But more importantly, do any Democrats really have the balls to not capitulate when they realize this? ;p
If the best you can come up with against someone who's patently ignorant is to yell back at him, "Yeah? Well there's BOOKS, and they say you're WRONG!"
Then honestly you're not coming out of this looking great either.
Theres still a disturbing amount of people in the south that want to start the civil war back up. I say give it to them, lets see what happens when they realize they eat up a majority of funding from the US and their majority believes taxes are theft. It'ill go mad max in like 2 years and theill start a war with Mexico.
I wish we could see the numbers from CFA sales. I am willing to bet the amount of money is a boon and the protest will end up giving CFA more money then they normally pull in. People act like its just today, people are going to be out in droves to counter the protest on Friday. I wouldn't be surprised if you see people buying food and throwing it out in front of protesters.
I sure as hell hope so. I'm ready to escalate this culture wars to the next level. Let's do this!
You seem to think that there are enough people in power who share your desire to, if necessary, reduce The South to a parking lot as a response. As they would most likely merit such eventually if we were to really get to the point in partisanship where we had Governors and other elected officials openly violating both the constitution and other various laws just to retaliate in kind to each other's illegal actions. Remember, these people have been preparing for the Apocalypse, do you think they won't take it that far? But more importantly, do any Democrats really have the balls to not capitulate when they realize this? ;p
If this is a violation of the Constitution, then zoning out strip clubs is a violation of the Constitution. And given that almost every city in the U.S. relies on their ability to NIMBY the shit out of whatever the fuck business they want for whatever reason they want, I don't really think your "violation of the Constitution" argument has much mileage. So, rather than try to go that direction, my suggestion is to just run the bigots out of fucking town, use the tools we have at our disposal, and leave the rest to the vultures.
Theres still a disturbing amount of people in the south that want to start the civil war back up. I say give it to them, lets see what happens when they realize they eat up a majority of funding from the US and their majority believes taxes are theft. It'ill go mad max in like 2 years and theill start a war with Mexico.
I wish we could see the numbers from CFA sales. I am willing to bet the amount of money is a boon and the protest will end up giving CFA more money then they normally pull in. People act like its just today, people are going to be out in droves to counter the protest on Friday. I wouldn't be surprised if you see people buying food and throwing it out in front of protesters.
I'm not terribly concerned about that, this is a demographic fight the intolerant biggots will lose in the court of public opinion in the long run
I was referring to the "zoning businesses we disagree with politically out."
I'm fine if Bumfuck, Alabama wants to stop ordering from Amazon, using Google, and decides to run their local Chipotle out of town. It just means that the only place you're going to be able to eat in Bumfuck are shitty little local diners and Chick-Fil-As.
In a trade war like this, the winners are the cities. And the cities are right, and the shitholes are wrong. So, like I said, let's fucking do this shit.
Sometimes, every once in a while, i'll read one of your pitchfork-the-south post and I wanna be all
I sure as hell hope so. I'm ready to escalate this culture wars to the next level. Let's do this!
You seem to think that there are enough people in power who share your desire to, if necessary, reduce The South to a parking lot as a response. As they would most likely merit such eventually if we were to really get to the point in partisanship where we had Governors and other elected officials openly violating both the constitution and other various laws just to retaliate in kind to each other's illegal actions. Remember, these people have been preparing for the Apocalypse, do you think they won't take it that far? But more importantly, do any Democrats really have the balls to not capitulate when they realize this? ;p
If this is a violation of the Constitution, then zoning out strip clubs is a violation of the Constitution. And given that almost every city in the U.S. relies on their ability to NIMBY the shit out of whatever the fuck business they want for whatever reason they want, I don't really think your "violation of the Constitution" argument has much mileage. So, rather than try to go that direction, my suggestion is to just run the bigots out of fucking town, use the tools we have at our disposal, and leave the rest to the vultures.
I'd feel much comfortable if they fucked with zoning rules as a dodge than what Emmanuel and the alderman in Chicago were saying, which is that we'll deny you permits because you said some bigoted shit.
This is probably silly of me, but I don't care.
Self-righteousness is incompatible with coalition building.
I sure as hell hope so. I'm ready to escalate this culture wars to the next level. Let's do this!
You seem to think that there are enough people in power who share your desire to, if necessary, reduce The South to a parking lot as a response. As they would most likely merit such eventually if we were to really get to the point in partisanship where we had Governors and other elected officials openly violating both the constitution and other various laws just to retaliate in kind to each other's illegal actions. Remember, these people have been preparing for the Apocalypse, do you think they won't take it that far? But more importantly, do any Democrats really have the balls to not capitulate when they realize this? ;p
If this is a violation of the Constitution, then zoning out strip clubs is a violation of the Constitution. And given that almost every city in the U.S. relies on their ability to NIMBY the shit out of whatever the fuck business they want for whatever reason they want, I don't really think your "violation of the Constitution" argument has much mileage. So, rather than try to go that direction, my suggestion is to just run the bigots out of fucking town, use the tools we have at our disposal, and leave the rest to the vultures.
I'd feel much comfortable if they fucked with zoning rules as a dodge than what Emmanuel and the alderman in Chicago were saying, which is that we'll deny you permits because you said some bigoted shit.
This is probably silly of me, but I don't care.
Yeah, but if they aren't actually acting on that, I don't see how they're being violated.
I was referring to the "zoning businesses we disagree with politically out."
I'm fine if Bumfuck, Alabama wants to stop ordering from Amazon, using Google, and decides to run their local Chipotle out of town. It just means that the only place you're going to be able to eat in Bumfuck are shitty little local diners and Chick-Fil-As.
In a trade war like this, the winners are the cities. And the cities are right, and the shitholes are wrong. So, like I said, let's fucking do this shit.
I have been thinking about this a lot. Would love to see some city-states rise up against the poopy masses.
I was referring to the "zoning businesses we disagree with politically out."
I'm fine if Bumfuck, Alabama wants to stop ordering from Amazon, using Google, and decides to run their local Chipotle out of town. It just means that the only place you're going to be able to eat in Bumfuck are shitty little local diners and Chick-Fil-As.
In a trade war like this, the winners are the cities. And the cities are right, and the shitholes are wrong. So, like I said, let's fucking do this shit.
Sometimes, every once in a while, i'll read one of your pitchfork-the-south post and I wanna be all
dude
calm down yo
maybe put down the torch and acid
Those of us who are decent people trapped in the South are also concerned by such attitudes. :P
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MortiousThe Nightmare BeginsMove to New ZealandRegistered Userregular
I sure as hell hope so. I'm ready to escalate this culture wars to the next level. Let's do this!
You seem to think that there are enough people in power who share your desire to, if necessary, reduce The South to a parking lot as a response. As they would most likely merit such eventually if we were to really get to the point in partisanship where we had Governors and other elected officials openly violating both the constitution and other various laws just to retaliate in kind to each other's illegal actions. Remember, these people have been preparing for the Apocalypse, do you think they won't take it that far? But more importantly, do any Democrats really have the balls to not capitulate when they realize this? ;p
If this is a violation of the Constitution, then zoning out strip clubs is a violation of the Constitution. And given that almost every city in the U.S. relies on their ability to NIMBY the shit out of whatever the fuck business they want for whatever reason they want, I don't really think your "violation of the Constitution" argument has much mileage. So, rather than try to go that direction, my suggestion is to just run the bigots out of fucking town, use the tools we have at our disposal, and leave the rest to the vultures.
I'd feel much comfortable if they fucked with zoning rules as a dodge than what Emmanuel and the alderman in Chicago were saying, which is that we'll deny you permits because you said some bigoted shit.
This is probably silly of me, but I don't care.
Isn't zoning laws the only way for them to ban them though? I thought that was what some posters said upstream. So it's more transparency in government, yay.
Though I'd like to see how they'd zone something to prevent CFA from opening a store, and not affect other fast food businesses. No Fried Chicken foodstuffs within 1 mile of a person suffering from weight problems?
I was referring to the "zoning businesses we disagree with politically out."
I'm fine if Bumfuck, Alabama wants to stop ordering from Amazon, using Google, and decides to run their local Chipotle out of town. It just means that the only place you're going to be able to eat in Bumfuck are shitty little local diners and Chick-Fil-As.
In a trade war like this, the winners are the cities. And the cities are right, and the shitholes are wrong. So, like I said, let's fucking do this shit.
Sometimes, every once in a while, i'll read one of your pitchfork-the-south post and I wanna be all
dude
calm down yo
maybe put down the torch and acid
There was a ten hour traffic jam in my shitty rural town so everyone could get their Chik-Fil-A family protection sandwich. It really does suck. There is a reason gays move to cities and it is so we can live semi-functional lives without these people constantly shitting on us.
I was referring to the "zoning businesses we disagree with politically out."
I'm fine if Bumfuck, Alabama wants to stop ordering from Amazon, using Google, and decides to run their local Chipotle out of town. It just means that the only place you're going to be able to eat in Bumfuck are shitty little local diners and Chick-Fil-As.
In a trade war like this, the winners are the cities. And the cities are right, and the shitholes are wrong. So, like I said, let's fucking do this shit.
I have been thinking about this a lot. Would love to see some city-states rise up against the poopy masses.
Seriously. Seattle is getting completely fucked by the budgetary process in this state. We just need to take our ball and fucking go home.
I was referring to the "zoning businesses we disagree with politically out."
I'm fine if Bumfuck, Alabama wants to stop ordering from Amazon, using Google, and decides to run their local Chipotle out of town. It just means that the only place you're going to be able to eat in Bumfuck are shitty little local diners and Chick-Fil-As.
In a trade war like this, the winners are the cities. And the cities are right, and the shitholes are wrong. So, like I said, let's fucking do this shit.
We have regular local restaurants in Alabamia, Thanatos.
It's grocery stores and other shopping of that nature that is being hit hard by Walmart.
Now, that said, the local restaurants serve shitty southern food where everything is cooked to death and the only flavor they can taste is "sweet" so I would literally rather go to Applebees.
But the locals like that shit and frequent those places so whatevs.
And yeah, the more I think about it the more pissed off I get that those mayors have said what they've said. It compromises our moral high ground, and makes it seem more like a grey area. Which it is, I guess. On the one hand you have some mayors trying to suppress a business that isn't doing anything illegal, and on the other hand you have a business that's spending some serious cash on anti-gay rights.
Fuck those mayors, seriously. They're not helping.
I'm sorry, that's bullshit.
Elected representatives have every right to speak their minds, certainly as much as a CEO. Until a permit gets denied "fuck the mayors" is ridiculous.
And even then I think there's a discussion to be had.
Mayors have the right to speak their minds as private citizens, as do Aldermen, but when they start doing things like using city stationary it shades into an inappropriate use of state power.
Posters in this thread are right that de facto it is often possible to creatively use zoning restrictions in order to punish or block certain undesirables from entering town; they are wrong in thinking that this is de jure legal. This is just as it is often possible to design facially neutral hiring and retention policies--policies which never explicitly mention race--but which are nonetheless jury-rigged so as to retain and promote whites over minorities; or, perhaps better yet, to deliberately place polling locations and install voter registration procedures such that the minority vote will be suppressed. These things are all illegal, although often difficult to catch. If you're arguing that creative zoning as a way to punish Chick-Fil-A is kosher here, then you should realize that similar maneuvering would vitiate a great deal of civil rights legislation.
Cities taking retaliatory action against a corporation--by, say, blocking its establishment of franchises, or terminating its leases in state university cafeterias--on the basis of the political views it espouses strikes me as an exceptionally clear cut violation of the freedom of speech. Which, I think, is why at least most of these mayors have been careful not to explicitly say that they will, in their role as mayor, take this form of retaliatory action, preferring nasty letters to concrete promises of action. Which, as above, is fine and all, right up until the point where the nasty letters themselves begin to be such that a reasonable person would interpret them as more than just a personal expression of disapproval, but a veiled threat of retaliation by state agencies.
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If it's because they've donated to certain political campaigns, that's terrible. Government should control/block the placement/presence of business for better reasons. Preferably reasons that are actually lawful.
If a company was proudly touting that they donate to the KKK, would that be enough to block?
Generally speaking, that sounds like a very reasonable role for local governments.
Nor did that PA city offical's letter.
Are there new ones specifically saying "your application for a permit will be denied based on your comments"?
And even if they do end up preventing them from moving in, you can't stop them from opening because of their bigotry, but you can stop them from opening in any number of ways. I think it was this thread or the last one where I detailed some of the ways my own town has tweaked zoning to keep certain businesses out, and some of them are quite creative - we used to have a minimum distance between a restaurant and a veterinary clinic, for example, so that in most of the business districts a restaurant needs to get a variance before it can open. The actual process of getting a variance is frequently closed and there's not written rules on it (since it's a pass to break the rules), reasons for allowing/denying one are rarely given, and it's very hard to challenge if you're denied one.
What is the official line on why? Having that kind of helps. ;p
But really what's troublesome is this, if they do this and succeed we then get to worry about the G.O.P. Governors using that as an excuse to run any Democrat-owned businesses out of their states. They will retaliate and they will go over the top in a way only today's crop of G.O.P. could. The real question we need to be asking isn't so much one about morality but rather one of blowback. Do we have the ability to do this in a way that the response will not end up making America collectively worse?
As long as these remain strongly-worded-letters-of-disapproval I'm on board. But I can't support any active attempt to block them. It would only end in tears for us all.
Spoiler alert: they won't. It's just not going to happen. Anybody who even thinks it will is lying to themselves, or misled.
Steam
There's a 2011 article on the subject. I don't know how the situation has changed since then, but basically Walmart didn't have concrete plans for where they wanted to place a store but most of the NYC city council was adamantly against it. Of course, blocking Walmart where you don't want it is easy -- just don't zone land for big box stores.
I'm fine if Bumfuck, Alabama wants to stop ordering from Amazon, using Google, and decides to run their local Chipotle out of town. It just means that the only place you're going to be able to eat in Bumfuck are shitty little local diners and Chick-Fil-As.
In a trade war like this, the winners are the cities. And the cities are right, and the shitholes are wrong. So, like I said, let's fucking do this shit.
Shitty local Southern diners are a endless source of community pride and diabetes, I'll have you know.
I have to admit, I started to laugh, then I realized that I wouldn't be that surprised.
Twitch Stream
I thought there was a Chicago alderman* who said he wouldn't let them build a franchise somewhere near Chicago.
Linky. He says he'll deny them a permit to build unless they show him a written anti-discrimination policy. Which seems kinda odd, because I think that IL counts sexual-orientation as a protected class and state-law already dictates that you cannot discriminate on that basis. I mean, it'd be good to have CFA have an actual anti-discrimination policy, but if the state already says you can't discriminate I'm not sure a statement from the company does much.
* From my understanding an alderman is kinda like the head of a City-County Council, and and he can over-rule a majority vote by the CCC. I could be very mistaken here though...
It's that damn Michael Berry - he bought 250 chicken sandwiches and was giving them away for free on Westheimer this afternoon. Michael Berry is a conservative radio host based in Houston.
You really can't have any familiarity with this stuff if you think the "You are intolerant of my intolerance" issue has anything to do with what those local politicians said.
That argument has been around forever at this point and comes up with every issue.
This "high ground" you are going on about never existed.
You seem to think that there are enough people in power who share your desire to, if necessary, reduce The South to a parking lot as a response. As they would most likely merit such eventually if we were to really get to the point in partisanship where we had Governors and other elected officials openly violating both the constitution and other various laws just to retaliate in kind to each other's illegal actions. Remember, these people have been preparing for the Apocalypse, do you think they won't take it that far? But more importantly, do any Democrats really have the balls to not capitulate when they realize this? ;p
I wish we could see the numbers from CFA sales. I am willing to bet the amount of money is a boon and the protest will end up giving CFA more money then they normally pull in. People act like its just today, people are going to be out in droves to counter the protest on Friday. I wouldn't be surprised if you see people buying food and throwing it out in front of protesters.
I'm not terribly concerned about that, this is a demographic fight the intolerant biggots will lose in the court of public opinion in the long run
Sometimes, every once in a while, i'll read one of your pitchfork-the-south post and I wanna be all
dude
calm down yo
maybe put down the torch and acid
I'd feel much comfortable if they fucked with zoning rules as a dodge than what Emmanuel and the alderman in Chicago were saying, which is that we'll deny you permits because you said some bigoted shit.
This is probably silly of me, but I don't care.
Yeah, but if they aren't actually acting on that, I don't see how they're being violated.
Those of us who are decent people trapped in the South are also concerned by such attitudes. :P
Isn't zoning laws the only way for them to ban them though? I thought that was what some posters said upstream. So it's more transparency in government, yay.
Though I'd like to see how they'd zone something to prevent CFA from opening a store, and not affect other fast food businesses. No Fried Chicken foodstuffs within 1 mile of a person suffering from weight problems?
It’s not a very important country most of the time
http://steamcommunity.com/id/mortious
We have regular local restaurants in Alabamia, Thanatos.
It's grocery stores and other shopping of that nature that is being hit hard by Walmart.
Now, that said, the local restaurants serve shitty southern food where everything is cooked to death and the only flavor they can taste is "sweet" so I would literally rather go to Applebees.
But the locals like that shit and frequent those places so whatevs.
Talk to a group of 20-something southerners.
They are about as bigoted as a group from somewhere else.
The majority of them simply do not give any fucks about homosexuality.
Not quite:
But it does show the same trend.
Mayors have the right to speak their minds as private citizens, as do Aldermen, but when they start doing things like using city stationary it shades into an inappropriate use of state power.
Posters in this thread are right that de facto it is often possible to creatively use zoning restrictions in order to punish or block certain undesirables from entering town; they are wrong in thinking that this is de jure legal. This is just as it is often possible to design facially neutral hiring and retention policies--policies which never explicitly mention race--but which are nonetheless jury-rigged so as to retain and promote whites over minorities; or, perhaps better yet, to deliberately place polling locations and install voter registration procedures such that the minority vote will be suppressed. These things are all illegal, although often difficult to catch. If you're arguing that creative zoning as a way to punish Chick-Fil-A is kosher here, then you should realize that similar maneuvering would vitiate a great deal of civil rights legislation.
Cities taking retaliatory action against a corporation--by, say, blocking its establishment of franchises, or terminating its leases in state university cafeterias--on the basis of the political views it espouses strikes me as an exceptionally clear cut violation of the freedom of speech. Which, I think, is why at least most of these mayors have been careful not to explicitly say that they will, in their role as mayor, take this form of retaliatory action, preferring nasty letters to concrete promises of action. Which, as above, is fine and all, right up until the point where the nasty letters themselves begin to be such that a reasonable person would interpret them as more than just a personal expression of disapproval, but a veiled threat of retaliation by state agencies.
So, in other words, I'm with Melkster.
But seriously, I'm kinda surprised by that data.
Steam