Does Boston Mayor Thomas Menino have the power to block Chick-Fil-A from doing business in Boston?

Mayor Menino is famous for his "cowboy" mayorship where anyone who wants to do business in the city needs to stay in his good graces. He got in mild trouble for telling phone companies how many Little League teams they needed to sponsor to get the city phone contract, but this is the way he's always run the city. If Chick Fil A gets on his bad side, things will mysteriously start happening to them, like neglected trash pickup, surprise health code infractions, and denied business permits. Right or wrong, this is the reality of doing business in Menino's town.

Not outright, of course. But while other restaurants might skate by on gray areas with regard to compliance with the many regulations that govern the restaurant business, you can bet that Chick-fil-A will be scrutinized microscopically (perhaps in a literal sense) and called on every. single. detail, and even the most minute infraction will result in maximum penalties. Any permits the restaurant needs will take an uncommonly long time to obtain. Companies who agree to do business with Chick-fil-A (such as suppliers) will find similar treatment. If students in Boston (and the city has a TON of college students) decide to hold massive demonstrations in front of the restaurant, Boston police might be a unusually more permissive about how far they let it go -- or be slow in showing up in the first place. In short, Menino has plenty of legal ways of making it so difficult for Chick-fil-A to do business in Boston that it simply wouldn't be worth it.