Rewarding failure always ends well.

Don't let facts get in your way, fuck up.

The Timberland Regional Library system (covering most of Thurston, Mason, Greys Harbor, Lewis, & Pacific counties) also goes fine-free on 1/2/2020. And busses in the Olympia area (Intercity Transit) go fare-free too.

We may not have equitable funding for public services (i.e. a state income tax), but this trend is a good first step.

Cool!

The library in my hometown (Council Bluffs, Iowa) has gone fine-free. If they can do it, so can Seattle.

@7 The soft bigotry of low expectations has no limits.

People who take advantage of this are not respectable members of society.

@9 They already have by not returning the books. Now there’s no consequences for bad behavior and anyone who has raised a child knows where that will lead.

We must become Singapoor!
Spit on sidewalk? Flogging!
Three minutes late returning book?
Okay.
Four minutes?
Flogging!

Add (all of) Kitsap's (Branch) Libraries to the Woke Ones list.
You still gotta take the fucker back.

OMG the OUTRAGE over people not being punished for returning late books. Do these people ride horses and wear bonnets? Because Puritanism is alive and thriving in modern Seattle.

“ The library in my hometown (Council Bluffs, Iowa) has gone fine-free”

Thanks for the laugh. What’s the murder rate in Council Bluffs?

It's called a "loss leader", and businesses do it all the time, so stfu, you goddamned snowflakes.

@15: Probably not as high as Omaha's (right across the Missouri river).

@17 I guess some paces are capable of having lots of guns but low murder rates in the US.

Some places - ahem - aren’t.

Anyhoo, can’t wait until the next library levy begging for money for all the missing books. Apparently some people are so lacking in ethics that they can’t return free shit that’s given to them.

"... some people are so lacking in ethics that
they can’t return free shit that’s given to them."

When shit is Given to you
ya don't gotta give it back.

If it's a Loner
ya don't Own 'er.
You still gotta take the fucker back.

If ya don't, you can not
check out any more
Till ya DO.

And some peeps
JUST STEAL THEM.
Shall we bolt all the doors?
Strip-search all the Patrons?
Shut down our (damn!) Libraries?!

15 dear, What does the murder rate in Council Bluffs (or any city, for that matter) have to do with that city's library policy? Did you mother drink when she was carrying you, or did you have an older sibling who kept poking at the soft spot on your skull when you were an infant?

But just to calm your nerves, there was one murder in CB last year, in a city of 62K. (down from 82k when I grew up there.)

@20 One murder in Council Bluffs, Iowa? How quaint. Sounds like a town full of decent people who would return library books with or without fines. No soft bigotry of low expectations there in the heartland. Good luck in doing the same in Seattle where if it isn’t bolted down you can kiss it goodbye.

So, we MUST bolt it all down.
Thanks, Cornholer!

We'll take Property Rights over the needs of the Citizenry
every time. Not to worry -- McBitch KkKonnell's all over it.

Oh my, Cornfed Queer dear, you've obviously never been there (or, I suspect, to the midwest). Not many murders, but lots of assaults, rapes, drug busts, etc. Like most of the "heartland" it's full of people too dimwitted to leave when they were young.

They do have casinos and magnificent "Adult Theatres", but that's about it.

@23 Blame Omaha.

Actually fine forgiveness for overdue material is not the same as wiping out replacement fees for lost or not returned items. You are still going to be charged if you don't bring the item back more than 31 days after it was due. But I guess that is just details. . .

@23: Be proud. A respectable assortment of stone and brick architecture adorn the town.

@25 -- details, schmetails!
A schtick is a schtick!
And a dead horse
usually always
just stays
that way.