u/Elephant43

Is anyone else annoyed by how many of those little free libraries are all over the place? I'm all for public literacy and I wish that there were more opportunities for children to pick up reading but not like this.

Nothing in this world is really free and I don't like the idea of my tax dollars being used for those. I already fund the daytime ​homeless shelter that's known as the Berkeley Public Library.

There's also a safety concern, as some of them aren't properly secured to the ground and could fall on a small child. Who would be liable in such an event? Sometimes, books can spill onto the ground, attracting vermin and creating a fall hazard for our most vulnerable senior citizens.

My neighbor Barb told me that drug dealers can use them to store their fentanyl. I haven't wanted to touch any of those books after learning that.

In loving community,

Karen

I bought this modest 6 bedroom house across the street from the park in 1972 for $12.39, and at that time the park was just for the immediate neighbors. Now there are too many people there all the time. ​Sometimes there's even tens​ of people there. On occasion there are even twenties of people. Last week I counted 26. It used to be that there was only ones or twos of people there. And let's just say they're not the good kind of people now. No over exaggeration to say that it's like Times Square at rush hour.

I tried to call the America Online to see if they could remove the park listing from the email and the MapQuest maps but I couldn't get a hold of anyone on the phone. I guess you have to go to a cyber cafe to contact them now.

I even called the city clerk office to see if there are any ordinances about how many people could be in a park. Certainly a city as respectable as Berkeley should have one or two public nuisance laws. The woman on the other end of the line had a thick accent and I couldn't understand her ebonics. She was very rude when I told her to speak real English.​ Mind you I have no problem with other cultures​ as I've done a work study program in Belgium in 1961. ​I also voted for Obama two times. ​She hung up out when I asked her if she really lived in Berkeley or just rented. The nerve.

Does anybody have any ideas on how we can shut down the park to people that don't live on the block?

Lovingly in community,

Karen