no third solution » Property Rights
The Zoning Board
One of my guilty pleasures—actually it’s a combination of boredom and late-night TV—is watching one of the local commissions on zoning on public access on Thursday nights. Setting aside the finer points of the matter in front of the council, after having watched a few of these proceedings I notice a pattern emerges.The curmudgeonly old lady, presumably a throw-back incumbent and self-confessed “life-long resident” of the city is strictly by the book. She is also as clueless as she is curious; often questioning the petitioner or petitioner’s representative about the details of the petition, despite these facts having been made painstakingly clear in the opening. She often raises the sort of technical questions the merits of which she is clearly unqualified to evaluate, as evidenced by improper use of … Read entire article »
Filed under: Bureaucracy, Property Rights
State Evicts Man From Land Nobody Owns
In a Seattle suburb, there was a man who lived in a tree on a vacant lot. He lived alone, bothered pretty much nobody, and nursed sick and injured squirrels back to health. All of that changed recently, when the State ordered him to tear down the hand-made shelter in which he had been living for the past two years. [C]ity workers arrived unannounced and put pink-ribboned survey stakes around the cluster of trees that hold [David Csaky's] home. Then Friday, the city dispatched social workers to tell him about shelters a man with pets can’t use and treatment programs a light drinker doesn’t need. They told him officials planned to evict him from his treehouse in the vacant lot under the interstate… Workers with the city Transportation Department, acting on … Read entire article »
Filed under: Anarchy!, Property Rights