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Animal ATTRACTION |
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March 2008
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You can't fight city hall, but one small business is trying. In this relatively quiet westside neighborhood, there's one business - that behind the front doors - is anything but. (birds chirp) It's called Adventures in Birds and was opened 26 years ago by Jean Jordan. Jordan appears to know everything about birds. It is her life.. her passions.. a passion that was almost ruined, she says, because of this: construction. Jordan says, "It was a 180-thousand dollars that we lost, that we proved that we lost. We hired lawyers, cpas and stuff to prove it. For eight months, the city tore up Westfiew, putting in a new water main. Store manager Gary Foster says the crews blocked all access. He says, "You can get their on foot.. you can't drive to it. It's fixed now, but the business, they say suffered.. not just because of the lack of customers, but also their birds weren't able to nest their eggs. They say because crews worked around the clock, many eggs cracked. New birds never came into this world. .. expensive, rare birds. The bread and butter of her business. Jordan sued the city for more than a million dollars. She says, "Their job took away my job. It's a real bad situation all the way around. Both sides agreed to have the case worked out by an arbitrator, and in fact the city and Jordan agreed to a 65-thousand dollar settlement. It still must be approved by City Council, and that may not happen because Council member Toni Lawrence is opposed. We've been told she believes this will open the up the city to to thousands of lawsuits i the future, lawsuits involving construction. Jordan says, "She really needs to think about that because all of my taxes are paid.., all my things are done. I have done everything the city has asked me to do and all i ask is for the city to pay me back for my losses." 1 CommentsLeave a comment |
I have know Jean Jordan for over 20 years, and this is typical of her. If you ask any of the other bird stores in and around the Houston area, they will tell you that the bird business has been suffering for years. That settlement is ridiculous if she gets it.
As far as the breeding, those birds have been there for years and are used to traffic noise and commotion. I doubt the construction really caused any problems. She certainly has had plenty of baby birds for sale, and has bragged about how many rare species she has hatched lately and how much money she has sold them for.
Jean has always been litigious and has sued countless people over the years. It is textbook Jean Jordan to look for another free ride.