Christiania
As a follow-up to the mistaken identity post, here's the story I wrote on Christiania. I'm kinda proud of it.
To pique your interest, I give you the first few paragraphs:
In 2006, the people of Freetown Christiania had one of their epic, soul-crushing consensus-democracy meetings. It wasn’t going well. The subject was the future of Christiania itself. Up for debate was a plan by the conservative government that offered a devil’s bargain.
Option 1, accept the Danish government’s plan to normalize Christiania, the self-governed, three-decade-old hippie commune in the middle of Copenhagen, by putting it officially under Danish rule and allowing the government to construct housing for 400 new residents, opening it up for people to move there. Also, the Christianites would see their well-below-market rents raised through the roof. In short, it would be the end of Christiania as they knew it.
Option 2, reject the government’s plan, in which case the government would bulldoze the town and start over, basically doing what it wanted to anyway.
Everyone was scared, Christiania spokesman Thomas Ertmann tells me. Both sides were afraid of what the government would do, so the dialogues weren’t at all productive. These meetings went on for days. The deadline for an answer was fast approaching and there was no side with any clear edge. Amidst the chaos of debate, “a guy called Joker stood up and said, ‘why don’t we just put a guy in a Christiania suit who can play the flute up there and throw money around him?’”
You're sold, right? Government taking on the little guy. Fear. Bulldozers. It's not unlike Avatar, if Avatar was filled with hippies instead of giant blue cat people.
Anyhoo, go here and read more. You won't regret it.
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