Blue Vs. Red

This past week there were two significant victories in the continuing struggle against Red State Encroachment in New York. The first one came when developers abandoned plans to include a Wal-Mart at a proposed development in Rego Park. Now we hear Brooklyn says “fuhgeddaboudit” to Cracker Barrel (Did I have to fall back on that tired cliche? Why yes I did!):

Brooklyn has yanked the welcome mat out from under Southern food chain Cracker Barrel Old Country Store due to accusations of discrimination.

Borough President Marty Markowitz, who invited the company to check out Brooklyn, dropped his Southern hospitality following outrage among black and gay leaders over a history of discrimination claims against the chain.

“I do not believe they are ready for Brooklyn,” Markowitz said yesterday.

“It is our greatest source of pride that Brooklyn’s diversity of races, faiths and ethnicities is unrivaled anywhere in the world, and any company that is interested in doing business in Brooklyn must respect and celebrate that diversity. We have no plans to meet with Cracker Barrel.”

But before you cry “cheap and easy grandstanding,” take comfort in Clyde Haberman’s contrarian take on the Wal-Mart decision:

Wal-Mart was to be part of a new shopping mall in Rego Park, Queens. That was before an alliance of labor unions, small businesses, environmentalists and neighborhood groups persuaded politicians that this was the worst idea since Lincoln chose to take in a play.

With the City Council getting ready to give it a hard time, the mall’s developer decided that running into walls was not worth the pain. It dropped Wal-Mart from the project.

Never mind the usual concerns about traffic and the collapse of mom-and-pop stores. Wal-Mart’s child-labor practices, its aggressive anti-union philosophy and its imperious air were all guaranteed to punch the alarm buttons of New York politicians given to social engineering.

The fact that many Americans happen to like Wal-Mart because it keeps prices down got relatively scant attention. While they prefer to see themselves as a breed apart, New Yorkers have been known to enjoy low prices themselves.

I swear I’m not a Wal-Mart apologist — it’s just that I had no idea McDonald’s didn’t make it to New York until the 1970s:

It might help to take a short journey through time, back to the early 1970’s, when McDonald’s made its first inroads here. The issues then were different from today’s. But the attitude of many New Yorkers was much the same: the barbarians were at the gates and had to be repelled.

Not that the city was unfamiliar with fast-food operations. It had the likes of Nedick’s, White Castle, White Tower and Chock full o’Nuts. But McDonald’s terrified people. Protesters marched through Greenwich Village. Upper East Siders rallied. The end, all agreed, was near.

Typical was the lament of a woman who appeared in 1974 at a community board hearing to oppose a planned McDonald’s franchise on East 66th Street. “It would be a smelly, noisy pestilence,” she said, predicting plagues of rats, garbage and exhaust fumes. No less worrisome, she predicted, were the unsavory types “who would hang around such a place.”

One man rose to add his own battle cry. “Winston Churchill,” he said, “gave the boys at Eton just six words of advice: ‘Don’t give up. Never, never, never.’ ”

So much for those playing fields.

In case you didn’t notice, the golden arches are everywhere in the five boroughs – 250 outlets, the company says. Somehow, the city has managed not to collapse. Nor have McDonald’s employees been observed waylaying people on the street and dragging them inside to be force-fed Egg McMuffins.

Quite simply, many people enjoy eating there. And they might similarly want to shop at Wal-Mart if given the chance.