***Then the unwashed started arriving***
I noticed the same when our city did away with vagrancy laws. Suddenly the big library was over run with bums and drunks piling in on the soft couches and chairs sleeping all day in air conditioned coolness. The library had to close for a few weeks due to bed bug infestation from the bums.
Local museums were free, but due to the same problem had to start charging entrance fees to keep the bums out.
“Let see...Entrance fee $10. Mad Dog 20-20, $10. Decisions, decisions...”
—”Local museums were free,”
A friend was taking his son and a vanload of kids to The Field Museum in Chicago, as he was about to pay, when a herd of locals walked right in, not stopping to pay.
He asked about this and was told the payment is a voluntary donation! Over $20 for kids, $30 for adults.
He then dropped a twenty on the counter and asked for a receipt and marched his group in!, saving about $200.00.