The Danger of Being Neighborly Without a Permit
Since 2009, when a Wisconsin man built a little, free library to honor his late mother, who loved books, copycats inspired by his example have put thousands of Little Free Libraries all over the U.S. and beyond. Many are displayed on this online map. In Venice, where I live, I know of at least three Little Free Libraries, and have witnessed chance encounters where folks in the neighborhood chat about a book.
I wish that I was writing merely to extol this trend. Alas, a subset of Americans are determined to regulate every last aspect of community life. Due to selection bias, they are overrepresented among local politicians and bureaucrats. And so they have power, despite their small-mindedness, inflexibility, and lack of common sense so extreme that they’ve taken to cracking down on Little Free Libraries, of all things.
Never underestimate the idiocy of neighborhood Nazis.
Obviously these people are not struggling enough with just keep their body and souls together. Solution – don’t know – maybe if everybody ignore them, their heads would explode from frustration.
Bureaucrats: leading the drive to stamp out the scourge of literacy.
Here in Madison, WI, we’re number one in per-capita density of LFLs. We even have ’em on hiking trails. Too bad they’re filled mostly with religious tracts.