This is so sad and so true

One of the last third spaces. I wish I enjoyed books more. My wife goes all the time

and the only place where they dont ask for exorbitant amounts of money in exchange for self improvement.

go to a park and see a NO LOITERING sign
Then WTF is it FOR??
- Yeah that's for the wrong sorts of people. Don't worry, it's only selectively enforced, and the cops know you're one of the good ones. /s
- Punishing people arbitrarily, same as most laws.
  Counter example: last week I saw a sign indicating one shouldn't ride their horse on the interstate. This one is likely enforced.

Relevant Sarah Andersen:
- Nintendo: "That'll be $80."
  
  "We're not raising the price on Switch 2, just the accessories."
  
  Sorry we have a copyright on blankets
- That's not quite true. You can opt for adds instead.
  
  Usually you pay and still get ads. Even if you pay for an ad free tier they show ads for their own stuff.

Or just a place to escape abusive households, or avoid peer pressure, or just be alone for a while. And God forbid, learn something.

I was just discussing with a friend yesterday that lots of moments in the Spider-Man 2 videogame that are presented as being "New York" things, like people playing chess in a park, paint a pretty bleak picture of the rest of the US.
At least looking from this side of the Atlantic it seems that most Americans spend all of their time between home, work, consumption places, or in a car between those places. So they basically switch between being prisoners in a form of house arrest and being customers, leaving no space to be actual free people.
- it seems that most Americans spend all of their time between home, work, consumption places, or in a car between those places.
  Accurate. Depending on where you live, there may be more third places available, but they're often something you really have to make an effort to find.
- So much of that is about public transit.
  When everyone travels by car, there's not much space for walking around or standing around. Places where people walk around or stand around become places for buskers, artists, small vendors, etc. That turns that space from just a place you pass by into a destination itself.
  The other half of the problem is winter. Most of Europe is fairly warm compared to most of the Americas. It's only really the nordic countries where the daily average high is below freezing. In more than half of the US it's below freezing for months on end. That means that public outdoor spaces are not really all that usable for just hanging out in the winter.
  Part of the problem is cultural. Many of the colder places in Europe do outdoor Christmas markets. Those aren't exactly consumption-free places, but you can walk around and browse without paying. The US doesn't even do that, making the cold months a wasteland outdoors.
  I don't know if there's anywhere in the world that does extensive consumption-free public spaces for use in winter. But, that's what would really be needed in the northern US and Canada.
  
  Most of Europe is fairly warm compared to most of the Americas.
  All of these same issues are present in the warmer states as well, so that doesn't seem to make much difference.
  
  All of the cold places I've lived in the US have holiday pop up markets. Some but not all of the warm places.
- What are your third places that don't require money?
  (Don't say parks. Yes, we have parks. Everywhere I've ever lived, red or blue, has an abundance of parks. Yes within walking distance.)
  
  Sidewalks. If I have leisure time out of the house I’m probably walking my dog. It’s amazing how talkative my teens get when you’re out walking for an extended period!
  My Spring goal is the dog gets at least one walk longer than 2 miles every day, longer than 3 miles on weekends.
  Ironically it’s the park that’s expensive. Part of the tradition is to grab takeout to eat on a bench on the town common, and we’re lucky to have restaurants from many different culinary traditions. Our favorite since Pandemic is a Pakistani kebab place but our second is a Turkish kebab place for contrast
- A very large number of Americans spend a lot of time watching sporting events. These are ostensibly free (sort of, given that people usually pay for cable or streaming anyway) except that lots of people watch because they're gambling. Gambling is of course also a fee and a monstrous one at that, but it at least has the advantage of not really feeling like a fee.

That's why conservatives hate it
- Well that and a few of the books are supportive

Give it a minute.
- It's happening. The funding for libraries across the US is getting clawed back, and I suspect many (the majority) will eventually close permanently.
  Here in the EU, the vibe in libraries is decidedly "get your books and GTFO". The old timey welcoming vibe and friendly librarians are a thing of the past.
  
  Here in the EU
  I wish people would stop painting their experience as the default for 500M people in 30-ish countries across an entire continent.
  
  That's a bit too generalising. The libraries where I live do a lot to make libraries also a place for reading and socialising
  
  Where? My small library in rural France has book clubs, story time (on site and at the public pool), vintage and modern gaming consoles, art shows, craft workshops, and more.

That's why they kick out homeless people every hour on the hour
- I used to renovate houses for an organization in Atlanta similar to Habitat for Humanity. We would buy derelict houses and renovate them to provide housing for homeless people. Unfortunately these houses always had people squatting in them already, so the first stage of any project was us going in with various threatening hand tools and rousting out the current occupants. We appreciated the irony of this but I doubt they did.
- I saw a librarian kick out a homeless guy for sleeping in the library because "we have a rule that you can't be unconscious in the library. It's for your own safety."
  WTF? What kind of danger are you in when you're sleeping? What made this even stupider is he didn't need to cite some bullshit rule to kick the guy out, because he was snoring! He could've just said "Your snoring is too loud, and you have to be quiet in the library."
  
  The bigger question we as a society need to be asking is why does anyone needs to sleep in the library in the first place?
- Here in Vancouver, Washington, the city shuts down nearly all public park restrooms and water fountains for 6 months each winter. Ostensibly it is for avoiding freezing water pipes, but I'm fairly sure it's to increase land values of old single family housing that tend to be where parks are located by giving police an excuse to kick out homeless.

Parks, too - which is why it's OK that Republicans are trying to turn libraries into parks.
/s just in case.

Only if you make sure to bring your books back on time.
- Los Angeles got rid of late fees
- Many many libraries did away with fees during covid. They stuck with it because they are more likely to get the book back.

Only if you don't pay taxes. Nothing is free.
- Yes, if you torture the definition of "free" enough, then nothing is free.
  
  There's no need to torture the definition. You are paying taxes, thus the services you're getting are not free.

But it costs money xd
- Thanks for the opportunity to point out that most libraries also value community support. They can always use volunteers and donations but a great way to help your library is to look for book sales!
  When a library has too many of certain books less popular than expected or books that have gotten a fair amount of use they need to replace them. A community book sale gives you the opportunity to buy books at a huge discount and the library the opportunity to get a little of their investment back to support more current needs.

What is this "money" you talk about?!