The City Wants to Punish Chick-fil-A for Customers’ Bad Behavior

••• From the Independent: “The Santa Barbara City Council will decide this Tuesday whether to schedule a hearing that could potentially declare the Chick-fil-A drive-thru on upper State Street a public nuisance” because of customers clogging up on State Street while they wait. “Officially designating the drive-thru a public nuisance would grant city officials the legal authority to shut it down.” One hesitates to defend Chick-fil-A, but how is this the company’s problem and not an enforcement issue? The SBPD says it has tried ticketing, but clearly not enough; negative reinforcement is the way to change this behavior.

••• “A Santa Barbara woman has filed legal papers against Ritz-Carlton Bacara and a masseur she charged sexually assaulted her there during a massage.” According to the Independent‘s article, the resort was extremely unhelpful with the woman and, subsequently, the police.

••• Noozhawk followed up on the report here two weeks ago that Miss Daisy’s Consignment & Auction House is moving into the former Sears building at La Cumbre Plaza. Of note from the article: the store will just be on the 17,000-square-foot first floor; the lease is for at least seven years (and not temporary, as I imagined); and owner Glenn Novack “plans live music with wine and seating. People can sit in consignment couches or special seating for events. […] ‘It’s going to be a professional entertainment venue,’ [Novack] said.”

••• The recent buyer of a house on E. Mountain Drive for $7.5 million was Broadway producer Thomas Perakos. —Dirt

••• “In a surprise move, the owners of El Dorado Farms on Highway 246 west of Buellton recently withdrew their proposal for 35 acres of cannabis under hoop-houses next to the Pence Vineyards & Winery, county records show. The project had generated bitter opposition from some vintners and residents in the region.” —Newsmakers

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6 Comments

Brad Cook

They should close Chick-Fil-A for their continual infringement on the rights of the LGBTQ community.

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Christine!

Why not smarten up, Chik fil A has a BOOMING DRIVE THRU BUSINESS- during the pandemic its a DREAM. If this was Corazon- there would be a no brainer discussion about re-routing drive thru to Hitchcock- using the entryway north of VeloPro /pushed thru behind Jack in the Box and Rusty’s Pizza and voila, problem solved. But bad Chik fil A instead is PUNISHED for being busy, punished for continuing to sell food people are willing to wait in long lines for.
Last week I was in Santa Barbara, and damn near had a accident at said location- I was driving east on State and only the luck of the draw saved me from rear-ending a car as well as side-swiping another while avoiding the back up.
FIX THIS! Help this business, help them solve the issue!

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Lauren

What youre describing would require taking real estate from 3, possibly 4, other businesses. If bigot chicken wants that land to fix this problem and sell to more customers, they can pony up. Until then, they need to stick to the capacity of their lot and stop overflowing into the public roadway

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ES Corchero

Couldn’t agree more, Lauren! Santa Barbara’s restrictive drive-thru rules have always been a curious quirk of the city. And never have I been more appreciative that we don’t have more than I have when trying to pass by this location. As someone who has been sideswiped because another driver didn’t realize traffic was backed up through a light — or found the irony of wedged between two hungry drivers, not moving, only to read a city sign on the sidewalk that says the situation I am caught in is a traffic violation (I have never seen anyone ticketed) — I loathe Chick-fil-A’s pathetic attempts to resolve the situation. Rework your parking lot flow or how the drive-thru works — otherwise this chain deserves to have its drive-thru removed like the McDonalds a couple block up.

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LMG

I agree with Brad Cook. Also, CFA’s food is disgusting. Which makes me think a lot of people eat there just to make a point, which is gross in and of itself.

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