Restaurant owner battles city hall over bird poop

A Texas restaurant owner found himself in a fight with city hall after being told he couldn’t wash bird poop off his sidewalk (AP file photo)

John Webb prides himself on keeping a clean restaurant. So the owner of Crawdaddy’s Restaurant in Corpus Christi, Texas couldn’t believe it when the city said he couldn’t wash the bird droppings off the sidewalk in front of his business.

“If I can’t wash my sidewalk off what am I supposed to do. I’m at a loss to how I can clean this up,” Webb said in an interview with the Dori Monson Show.

Webb said pigeons regularly camp out on top of the building and poop all over the sidewalk below, and for the last 18 years he’s hosed it off. But when a neighboring business recently complained about some standing water, someone from city hall came down and told him to stop.

“He said ‘Oh no you can’t wash that sidewalk.’ I said ‘well why not?’ He said ‘because you’re polluting, that’s going right directly into our bay’,” said an outraged Webb.

Webb pointed out the bird droppings get washed into the water anyway whenever it rains. But he says the city official called that a ‘natural occurrence.’

“I said ‘Me washing it off with my garden hose is polluting it, but if the rain washes it off, it’s a natural occurrence and it’s ok?’ I said ‘do the words you’re saying make any sense to you?'”

Webb said he never got an answer to his question. But even though city hall was silent, the nation wasn’t. His story has gone national, getting coverage from coast to coast as an example of government run amok. The official threatened to fine him $2,000 a day.

“You know millions and billions of seagulls poop in that seawater everyday and there’s little organisms down there that just can’t wait to get a hold of that poop that are starving to death,” Webb said.

Luckily, those organisms, and Webb can rest easier. After all the attention, Webb told Monson he just got a call from city hall. The mayor has passed a proclamation allowing businesses to wash their sidewalks after all.

“God works in mysterious ways, but when he answers, it’s loud and clear,” Webb told Monson. “You’re talking to a man who fought city hall and won.”