Anarchist Dreams Deferred

The Denmark "free zone" of Christiania is in trouble. From Associated Press copy:

The hippie enclave Christiania will remain the Danish capital's alternative lifestyle community as long as residents obey the law, pay rent and stop selling drugs, the government said. In a report on Christiania's future, the government said Friday enclave residents must adapt their houses to building codes or tear them down.

The 34-hectare former naval barracks that is home to about 1,000 people "should still be an area where there is room to live in a different way," said Finance Minister Thor Pedersen.

"But it must be normalized, it must respect the laws that apply in the rest of the Danish society."

The enclave took root in 1971 when dozens of hippies moved into the derelict 18th-century fort on state-owned land. The freewheeling society became a counterculture oasis with psychedelic-coloured buildings, free marijuana, no government, no cars and no police.

In 1987, Christiania was recognized as a "social experiment" and residents were later given the right to use the land but not own it. The government plan eliminates the agreement.

No Galt's Gulch, this–apparently most of them lived off state welfare–but an inspirational experiment in living all the same.