Playing Chicken at Burgergate

Jinxed Joint? They dubbed it “Burgergate” back when Burger King’s upper State Street drive-in got okayed under highly dubious circumstances.

Now, people like community gadfly Lee Moldaver observe, the site of the 1970s controversy has reemerged in the wake of a national fuss. Chick-fil-A, a Southern fast-food chain, is moving in at 3707 State Street, bringing a broiler-hot dispute over gay marriage to Santa Barbara.

“Maybe that building is jinxed,” cracked Dave Davis, former city planning director, now executive director of the Community Environmental Council. “One of the most haunted locations in town,” says Moldaver.