Mork would disapprove

Boulder, Colorado, has always held some peculiar utopianistic ideas about health and safety – not to mention free speech. For instance, in Boulder County homeowners might soon be “discouraged” from building large houses (in some places anything over 1,000 sq feet) on their property. Some locals say Boulder is 25 square miles surrounded by reality.

But it was just a matter of time before the Nanny State snatched something consequential from Boulderites: Swings.

It’s not quite a diabolical plot to deprive rope-swing enthusiasts of summer fun and liberty, but the numbering certainly is ironic, said Boulder resident Kevin Hotaling.

City ordinance 6-6-6 states no foreign objects - such as rope swings - can be attached to trees without approval from the city manager.

The Boulder Parks and Recreation keep cutting down swings and citizens keep putting them back up, frustrating the city. “The last thing I want people to think is Boulder doesn’t want people to have fun,” explained Helen Gavin, a risk management expert for the city. “It’s a public-safety problem.”

More likely, the city is nervous about some litigious new-ager suing.

UPDATE: A couple of readers have asked “why Mork?” The exterior shots of the house Mork & Mindy lived in were in Boulder.