Most people agree that roads are not to be blocked by local residents. There are municipal roads, county roads, interstate roads, and dusty drives that connect country properties. Towns take care of their roads. County roads crisscross their cities and are monitored by the County Sheriff. The interstate system is under the state’s purview. But no one thinks any of these governance groups can set up a blockade to the detriment of the neighbors.
Parks don’t have that network quality, one connecting to all the rest. But the norm around parks is that they are open to the public. Visitors from near or far are welcome to join in the fun on the play equipment or on the bleachers, watching early spring Little League.
Does it make sense, then, that one metropolitan area prohibited another branch of government from using its parking lots? Even if legally, formally, the written word dictates that the city sets the rules, is this the norm? Rather, it is at odds with the big tent acceptance of all groups. It’s an internalisation, a removing of a privilege.
People will shrug. It’s not a big deal, they’ll say. Until another norm is broken and then another. And pretty soon, the mechanism for containing a wayward direction has broken downcompletely, and the scammers are off and running.
The breaking of norms is perhaps the first indicator of cultural drift.
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