Chick-fil-A
In the great Chick-fil-A debate, New Yorkers side with Bloomberg, not Quinn
In the great Chick-fil-A debate, New York voters overwhelmingly believe that businesses have a right to operate in the city, regardless of their owners' political beliefs, according to today's Quinnipiac poll.
The poll serves as an endorsement of Mayor Michael Bloomberg's (and the NYCLU's) civil libertarian stance on the issue, and is something of a condemnation of Council Speaker Christine Quinn's request that NYU consider banishing the chicken chain from its campus. More
(1)Assessing Christine Quinn's impact on the Chick-fil-A debate
One of the scuffles that has reportedly cooled Speaker Christine Quinn's relationship with Mayor Michael Bloomberg was her demand last week that New York University evict the only Chick-fil-A restaurant in the city on account of its owners' opposition to gay marriage.
The public denunciations of the fast food chain sparked conservatives to rally around the restaurant on August 1, declaring it Chick-fil-A Appreciation Day, which helped the company set a company-high sales record.
A Page Six cartoon lampooned Quinn for inadvertently bolstering Chick-fil-A's coffers. More
Kiss-fil-A Day
Today, it was same-sex marriage supporters who flocked to Chick-fil-A to stage their own, photographic demonstrations. [Politico]
Chick-fil-A, as a bellwether for November? [Tim Stanley]
A very speculative piece about what impact the debate is having on Chick-fil-A employees. [Jena McGregor]
Why this is even an issue? "the combination of fast food and gay marriage was irresistible to politicians, activists and preachers — people who need opportunities for good symbolism, for low-cost ways to signal where they stand." [Mark Oppenheimer]
(1)Bloomberg agrees with the ACLU on Chick-fil-A, disagrees with Thompson on hiring police
During his regular Friday morning radio appearance, Mayor Michael Bloomberg slapped down a proposal by mayoral contender Bill Thompson to put more cops on the streets, and defended fast-food chain Chick-fil-A from Mayors Rahm Emanuel (Chicago), Tom Menino (Boston) and Edwin Lee (San Francisco), all of whom have said that, thanks to the Chick-fil-A president's opposition to same-sex marriage, the fast-food restaurant is not welcome in their cities. More
