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Ostriches in Chandler, Arizona? Yes!

Ostriches in Chandler, Arizona? Yes!

 Note about the purpose of the story post.

This short story about Ostrich statues in Chandler, Arizona, is an example of an in-between post to keep my content fresh and updated despite not having many ideas for a longer post. The first one was my 1K total viewers celebration. Expect them when I hit the evitable wall that comes with writing. I will continue to post blogging reflections on LinkedIn since that would be more relevant there. I am still trying to figure out the stories feature. It is much easier to add a photo for a story on the app, but it does not allow to type or save. You have to publish it first, which is annoying.

Why Are Ostriches associated with Chandler, Arizona?

The photo is one of many ostrich statues. This particular one is in the corridor between the gallery and lobby of the main Chandler City Hall building. The blue I saw in from the old western shop in 2014 disappeared along with the shop. The second is at the new location of D’Vine Gourmet shop at 72 S San Marcos Place in downtown Chandler.

AJ Chandler, founder and first mayor of Chandler, Arizona, brought ostriches to the area. Thus the city became associated with the ostrich. Every March, the city of Chandler has an Ostrich festival where among other things, you can see the birds in the festival. In addition to a festival, there is also a speakeasy-style bar named after the giant bird in the basement of Crust Restuarant at San Marcos Hotel.

Related

This 2017 azcentral.com article gives a brief overview of ostriches in Chandler and how the festival started in the city founder’s honor as well some of the controversies over featuring live ostriches in the festival

https://www.azcentral.com/story/news/local/chandler/2017/03/10/history-and-protests-over-chandler-ostrich-festival/98502344/

Trivia: the full name of the founder was Alexander John, not James, so technically, he doesn’t have the exact name as the Backstreet boy’s member AJ Mclean. Though, if he ever came to the city, the other AJ would probably get a kick out of it.

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