from Hacker News

Boy, 9, creates library in his front yard. City, stupid, shuts it down.

by Doublon on 6/20/14, 6:11 AM with 23 comments

• by jonemo on 6/20/14, 7:31 AM

  Slightly misleading headline. The city has no issue with the "library", they take issue with the library being a free-standing little shack making it a building code violation.

  Restricting where on a property one can erect structures is common in building codes across the world. And as always with laws and codes, once you allow for exceptions, everyone and their uncle will go to court to get an exception too.

  What I think the city should have done is invite the kid over to city hall and offer their assistance in navigating the process towards getting permits or whatever is needed to continue running the "library". That would be a helpful lesson to learn and probably yield a nice photo op for the mayor in the local newspaper - win win. Instead they taught him that government and bureaucracy are soulless machines.

• by randunel on 6/20/14, 7:29 AM

  The story is really about a piece of furniture being considered a detached house annex. The child and his books have little relevance as far as the city hall is concerned, only used to attract clicks.

• by gambiting on 6/20/14, 7:25 AM

  I can't even imagine what the person reporting this must have been thinking. Indeed, America, land of the free.

• by kteofanidis on 6/20/14, 7:19 AM

  The rule of law is a great thing. It's a shame when short sighted people enforce the letter instead of the spirit of the law as that undermines order in the long term.

• by pizza on 6/20/14, 7:18 AM

  Mark Twain would have a field day in 2014

• by Sgoettschkes on 6/20/14, 7:19 AM

  America, land of the free... Just wow!

  I'm living in Vienna and these things are common here. We have local stores having a "take something, leave somthing" shelf. We even have a few "cupboards" installed by the city at public places installed for this kind of book exchange.

• by DrinkWater on 6/20/14, 7:24 AM

  Seriously, how cold-blooded do you have to be?

• by donmb on 6/20/14, 7:25 AM

  Land of the free ...