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.
"Instead they taught him that government and bureaucracy are soulless machines."
I think that's a better lesson than how to "navigate the process towards getting permits" for a damn bookshelf.
- The 9 year old used his brain, his humanity and his creativity to make something nice for the community.
- We delegated power to a collection of mindless bureaucrats.
- Mindless bureaucrats caused problems for 9 year old.
Pretty accurate title.
It's quite probable that the city official did not even know it was a nine-year-old kid's structure, since the family was on vacation:
from article> When we got home from vacation, there was a letter from the city
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.
The reporter or the blogger could have turned this into an interesting story by investigating WHY outbuildings are not allowed by the city's building code. My guess is that there is a sound reason for this in the case of things like like 100 sq ft storage sheds [1], and so then the question would arise as to whether or not this makes sense for small buildings. Do they prohibit dog houses? Bird houses?
Another interesting question would be, if the code as written does indeed prohibit this structure, is whether or not that was intentional, or was the code too broadly drafted?
But no, they just go for the cheap "mean city bullies book sharing kid" approach.
[1] for instance! small detached buildings might be unusually dangerous in high winds, blowing apart and turning into shrapnel. This story is from a state known for tornados, so I'd be surprised if wind concerns were not a major factor in their building codes.
Don't forget just how large America is, you'll find every kind here depending on where you go. In some ways that's the draw: You can pick your perfect environment without having to deal with immigration or language issues.
Small minded people are generally attracted to this kind of power, so we get far too much of the later.
