Newport donates to hate groups

Shame, shame, shame on Newport city officials who allowed this.

Today, the first Chick-fil-A restaurant opens in Newport. The eatery rises along the new shopping strip on Pavilion Parkway.

Chick-fil-A has of course been the target of nationwide boycotts of late, largely because the restaurant chain has donated at least $5,000,000 to the American Family Association and the Family Research Council. The Southern Poverty Law Center lists both the AFA and the FRC as hate groups.

Pavilion Parkway is itself a source of controversy. In the last decade, the city of Newport abused eminent domain to illegally condemn the homes of hundreds of neighborhood residents and turned their property over to the developer of the shopping strip.

By allowing Chick-fil-A to use property stolen from residents, the city is in effect donating to hate groups. This is no exaggeration. It's a fact.

Because the development was a city-funded project, the city could have used its veto power to nix the Chick-fil-A. But city officials chose not to. Back when the developer threatened to build a Walmart, the city hemmed and hawed and said they didn't have veto power over any business. Like hell they didn't. Leaders in Chicago and Boston disinvited Chick-fil-A because of Chick-fil-A's links to hate groups. Newport can do the same - if it opted to do so.

When a business donates to hate groups, it needs to be asked to leave the area. And such an establishment has no business taking advantage of illegal land grabs like that which afflicted Newport residents.