All Businesses Allowed, Except Those That Are Proven Successes With Customers
The Palm Beach Town Council on Monday voted unanimously to block "formula restaurants" from opening in the island town.
The ban, which was first proposed in 2006, applies to restaurants with
three or more units and similar trade names, standardized and limited
menus, uniforms, architecture, and decor. The measure will go before
voters this spring.
In other words, if your business has proven itself to be successful with customers and attempts to bring this proven success formula to our town - forget it.
The post digs in further, and finds the real problem to be that the Palm Beach Town Council is afraid of the "riff raff" that might come with certain plebeian chains. Which reminds me of Lexington's opposition to the Boston Red Line being extended into their town. Ostensibly, they were opposed to it on fiscal grounds, but that is a joke in a town that has never opposed a government program ever on fiscal grounds. In fact, they were afraid of the "riff raff" the metro might bring to town, but the more-liberal-than-thou residents could never admit that in public.
Larry Sheldon:
I think San Francisco has similar law -- if you already have eleven, you can't open any more.
February 19, 2008, 8:28 pmBerthaMinerva:
So true! Here in Austin TX a local group has just failed trying to block the development of a Wal-Mart super-center on the site of a pretty much defunct mall. They have used every argument in the book - increased traffic, the aesthetics of the partking area's design, runoff into the local creek, etc - except the one that is really the motivation: that they don't want the type of people who shop at Wal-Mart in their slowly gentrifying neighborhood.
Some local radio guy said, quite correctly, that it if were a giant Whole Foods going into that place, there'd be celebrations and a ribbon-cutting ceremony and stuff.
February 20, 2008, 8:18 amMichael Wolf:
I don't want any nimbies in my back yard!
February 20, 2008, 9:30 am