The city of Emmen, Drenthe has been known to be innovative with bikes and people gladly visit the eastern city for its main attraction, their zoo.

However, months ago the city approved a subsidy for the construction of a bandstand, but tragically enough the city also denied the permit for building it, even after having agreed to the actual design of the bandstand. Thankfully, after publishing this absurdity in the local press, city council said they would have a look at the situation. Comments on this so far are ‘?’ and ‘this can’t be for real’.

Just around the corner from 24HQ in Amsterdam, a kiosk was going to appear where there had never been one before in recent times, but the same situation occurred: the business got the permit to operate but not to build, and a bit further down the road another kioske got the permit to build but not to operate.

It all sounds very Soviet-era to me, minus the bribes.

(Link: dvhn.nl, Photo of wilted tulip by Graham Keen, some rights reserved)