The city of San Francisco issued a letter and threatened to fine a local retired couple after they built a free library and bench for neighbors, according to a recent report.Â
“Remove unpermitted encroachments from public right of way,” the city demanded of San Francisco retirees Susan and Joe Meyers. Their only recourse, the couple told The Wall Street Journal, was to apply within 30 days for a $1,402 “Minor Sidewalk Encroachment Permit” to protect the library and bench they built for their neighbors.Â
“Many of this city’s streets are clogged with homeless tents, drug addicts and illegal vendors. City inspectors recently went after a Little Free Library,” Wall Street Journal reporter Jim Carlton wrote in summary of the incident.Â
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The couple, a retired psychologist and attorney in their late 70s, said they were shocked to be targeted by the local government, especially because it was based on a single anonymous complaint.Â
“It was upsetting to know one person could have so much power,” Dr. Susan Meyers said.Â
Dr. Meyers added that she wanted to share books and knowledge with her neighbors, according to the Wall Street Journal.Â
“I thought it was absolutely wonderful to be able to share free books with people,” she said, adding that she “grew up loving books.”
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The couple explained that they had “never received a single complaint about their tiny library” and “got the idea” after seeing other “book boxes on her walks around the city.”
Before they were reported for violating the city’s “encroachment” rules, the couple only had one problem: some drug users used the bench they built for passersby to “shoot up,” according to report.Â
San Francisco Board of Supervisors President Aaron Peskin responded to the abuse of the encroachment reporting system in a…
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