Chick-fil-A Fallout Continues

Pullet pandemonium.

Good for Hotchkiss and Rowse. The ABR has been capricious in their administration of the guidelines in the past, perhaps this current tantrum by some of the members can be used to reign in the entire group and lessen their perceived and actual power.

So clean freaks Mesa gang member 3-fingas down Rowse and Hollywood Hotchkiss don't understand that when you cannot objectively 'hear' an applicant they should step down or abstain at the point you determine you cannot be objective. Maybe they're confused because they are often lobbying, participating and voting on matters questionable.

Randy Rowse voted to make changes and improve his own Cliff Drive neighborhood while simultaneously denying safety improvements of de la Vina neighborhood concerns at Figueroa and Canon Perdido. Then he went on to cosponsor legislation that would prevent other disenfranchised residents in the city from pursuing their own similar neighborhood safety concerns.

And Hollywood Hotchkiss (he is an actor you know) should abstain from many meetings because he cannot objectively review issues regarding the lesser without jobs and homes, skateboarders and bicycle riders. His seething emotion is actually obvious and outward. Hotchkiss also has at times lobbied on behalf of his supporters at a local real estate organization and Hothckiss is not only an actor but is also a real estate pimp.

The problem with these conservative clean freaks is that they develop fake issues because they are well off and don't seemingly care or can't empathize about others that are not of identical phobic minds. Given a chance their collective would exterminate anything different just as Chic Fil-ah COO supported organizations that lobby against personal freedoms and rights at home, twisted therapies, and death as punishment abroad in Uganda. Then when after their actions result in controversy they blame the victim for their ill conceived ideas and actions; paralleling the recent national attention about men in charge, Women and abortion.

It is too bad that we are not immune to these regressive election season machinations. Once again we find ourselves in God, Guns and Gays politics because that is what the right wing does to stir up the incurious, ill-informed and hateful and to get them to the voting booth.

One ABR member has resigned. Good. The others need to follow. We need professional, responsible, reasonable people who understand their roles and responsibilities, to serve. Critically review and approve or deny or modify projects based on the design merits of the project, not your personal political beliefs.

Seriously Don? This particular rant was kind of dumb even for you; talk about trying to confuse the simple issue at hand...
An ABR member can't be objective about design criteria because they are unable to cope with someones right to free speech?

Don is a trip, isn't he? If you read him regularly you'll see that he's a classic left-winger - free speech only applies to him and those who agree with him. Lots of name-calling and rarely an actual thought.

And italiansurg and JohnLocke - there's just no kind of bigotry that offends you folks, is there? Hey man, the CEO's just rapping about how his religious zealotry defines a whole segment of our community as second class citizens, but ain't no big thing.

The real free speech denied by the ABR and their understandable but misguided abstentions - the ability to protest at the actual site of a Chik-Fil-A.

Those that read here regularly know my left leanings with issues about the incompetence of the BOS. In this case, I'm with the majority regardless of affilliations. The ABR reviews plans for design. Period. No room for political grandstanding. The current members are a joke. If they can't do their assigned job and leave their views, which have no place on a business design, regardless of how idiotic their beliefs, then resign or get rid of them.

..... a real long, bad trip!

BeachFran hit it on the head: do the tasks assigned to you, do your politics elsewhere. And hey JohnLocke, Don's no classic leftwinger...

That headline had me confused. I thought the city council was going to table Chick-fil-A, not throw out the members of the ABR that screwed the pooch. Good on Rowse and Hotchkiss; if you can't make a design decision objectively, you don't belong on the ABR.

Not every ABR member should resign because not every ABR member behaved inappropriately. In fact one legitimately abstained because he had returned from vacation and had no facts! So call off the witch hunt.
And before you erect a shrine to Frank Hotchkiss, he does not oppose fees for beach access, describing what we enjoy now as "an old custom that may have to pass."

Funny that now suddenly the whole free speech thing goes out the window...

I am especially looking forward to what Dale Francisco has to say during his hypocrisy festival for why he contributed $200 to the Yes on Prop. 8 campaign.

As a bonus, the city attorney and others routinely direct ABR and other board members that if they have conflict with an issue that would impair their fair decisions, those members should not vote on an issue before their board. That is what these three members did. So Rowse and Hollywood Hotchkiss will be grandstanding and pandering to bitch about how these ABR members did exactly what the city attorney advised them to do earlier in the year as a standing policy.

The hypocritical irony runs so thick on these boards I could swim in it. I do recall folks from the honorable conservative opposition calling for Justice Brown of the CA supreme court to abstain due to his sexuality when he presided over the Proposition 8 trial. At that time I seem to remember the argument going that "it would just be the responsible thing to do because he obviously can't rule objectively." Yet here we are several years later and when board members choose to abstain because they feel they can't rule objectively suddenly they are incapable of doing their jobs and must be removed. I prefer the backstroke, it’s easier on the shoulders.

Thank you John Adams. Dale Francisco has been strangely , uncharacteristically quiet on this issue.
Has he changed his stance, on this issue??
Come out Dale, and tell us what you think.

EatTheRich: I am offended by all forms of bigotry, including yours and McD's. But one of the uncomfortable truths about free speech is that one is allowed to express bigotry.

DrDan: just what is McD? His rants drip bile and hatred for anyone right of far left and anyone who he sees as wealthy or conservative. Sounds like classic left wing to me.

@JohnLocke: "EatTheRich: I am offended by all forms of bigotry, including yours and McD's."

Of course, there's no evidence to support either your offense at, or my supposed, bigotry, but I guess we should all be happy you've gone two posts without referencing the Nazis and leave it at that.

I'd think Dale Francisco is ecstatic the 2012 Republican platform calls for a constitutional amendment prohibiting same-sex unions:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/e...

The old-school Republicans of 20+ years ago (who are now minorities in their own party) were bigger defenders of civil liberties than their Tea Party and social values cohorts.

@EastBeach: I have a feeling if Eisenhower and JFK were brought back to like they'd both be shocked at the behavior of their respective parties.

@billclausen, I think the Republican Party is more interesting to look at because it's undergone more change recently and is arguably more fractious than the Dems. Here's a fascinating breakdown of the two parties done by the Kaiser Family Foundation & WaPo:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/politic...

Thanks for the great link EB. The problem I have with the Dems is that since I arrived to this country they have become far less tolerant of actual dissent within their party; there's almost zero room for old style Dem moderates. The Repubs were never too tolerant of dissent and for some reason the Dems figured they should make their tent smaller as well with a bunch of Progressive litmus tests.

Ken: When you say "come on out", I wonder if you're referring to a certain type of storage room one might find in...let's say, a house?

Remember what's at the core of this discussion: People channeling their anger at the owner of Chick-Fil-A by denying him a business license. Such folks don't realize this only adds to the divide they seek so desperately to close.

If you are on the ABR with a responsibility to determine whether or not architectural designs are appropriate for the city, and are unable or unwilling to decide because your opinions (no matter the topic) conflict with a corporate executive...please quit.