Editing Grafton, New Hampshire (section)

== Free Town Project ==
{{See also|Free State Project}}
In 2004, Grafton became the focus for [[Libertarians in the United States|Libertarians]] as part of the Free Town Project (a single-town version of the [[Free State Project]]).  One of the goals was to advocate for legal changes.<ref name="vox">{{cite news |last=Illing |first=Sean |date=December 10, 2020 |title=How a New Hampshire libertarian utopia was foiled by bears |url=https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/21534416/free-state-project-new-hampshire-libertarians-matthew-hongoltz-hetling |publisher=[[Vox (website)|Vox]]}}</ref> Grafton's appeal as a favorable destination was due to its absence of [[zoning]] laws and a then-low [[property tax]] rate.<ref name="newrepublic">{{cite magazine |last1=Blanchfield |first1=Patrick |date=October 13, 2020 |title=The Town That Went Feral: When a group of libertarians set about scrapping their local government, chaos descended. And then the bears moved in. |url=https://newrepublic.com/article/159662/libertarian-walks-into-bear-book-review-free-town-project |url-status=live |archive-url=https://archive.today/20201013115616/https://newrepublic.com/article/159662/libertarian-walks-into-bear-book-review-free-town-project |archive-date=October 13, 2020 |access-date=June 16, 2021 |magazine=[[The New Republic]] |issn=0028-6583}}</ref><ref name="vox" />  [[John Babiarz]], a Grafton resident and prominent member of the [[Libertarian Party of New Hampshire|Libertarian Party]], encouraged libertarian people to move there.<ref name="atavist">{{cite magazine |last1=Hongoltz-Hetling |first1=Matthew |author1-link=Matt Hongoltz-Hetling |date=May 2018 |title=Barbearians at the Gate: A journey through a quixotic New Hampshire town teeming with libertarians, fake news, guns, and—possibly—furry invaders |url=https://magazine.atavist.com/barbearians-at-the-gate-new-hampshire-libertarians-fake-news |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180616130203/https://magazine.atavist.com/barbearians-at-the-gate-new-hampshire-libertarians-fake-news/ |archive-date=June 16, 2018 |access-date=June 16, 2021 |magazine=Atavist |issue=79}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Hongoltz-Hetling |first1=Matthew |title=A Libertarian Walks Into a Bear: The Utopian Plot to Liberate an American Town (And Some Bears) |date=2020 |publisher=Public Affairs |isbn=9781541788510}}</ref>

During this time, the town's population grew by about 200 people (about 20%); nearly all of the newcomers were men.<ref name="newrepublic" />  Project participants did not find themselves as welcome as they had hoped, but they voted in changes including a 30% reduction in the town's already small budget.<ref name="newrepublic" /> This resulted in eliminating funding to the county's senior-citizens council, town offices going unheated during the winter, poorly maintained roads filled with [[pothole]]s, and the Grafton Police Department being reduced to one officer (the police chief), who said he was unable to answer calls for service as the town had no money to repair the one police vehicle left.<ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/21534416/free-state-project-new-hampshire-libertarians-matthew-hongoltz-hetling | title=How a New Hampshire libertarian utopia was foiled by bears | date=December 10, 2020 }}</ref> Other issues were inconsistent basic public services, such as [[trash collection]].<ref name="atavist" /><ref name="newrepublic" />  The libertarian newcomers additionally increased the town's costs by filing [[Test case (law)|lawsuits]] against it in attempts to set various [[legal precedent]]s.<ref name="newrepublic" />  
[[File:Trash hunting Black Bear 31, 06 Aug 2021.jpg|alt=bear on top of an all-metal dumpster|thumb|Example of a [[Bear-resistant food storage container|bear-resistant trash container]], with an [[American black bear]] climbing on top of it.  Some libertarian newcomers to Grafton refused to buy bear-resistant containers.]]
The project has been associated with an increase in the number and aggressiveness of [[American black bear|black bears]] in town, including entering homes, mauling people, and eating pets.<ref name="newrepublic" /> A single, definitive cause for the abnormal behavior of the bears has not been proven, but it may be due to libertarian residents who refuse to buy and use [[Bear-resistant food storage container|bear-resistant containers]], who do not dispose of waste materials (such as [[feces]]) safely, or who deliberately put out food to attract the bears to their own yards, without caring how this affected other people.<ref name="newrepublic" />

After a rash of lawsuits from Free Towners, an influx of [[sex offender]]s, an increase of crime, problems with bold local bears, and the first [[murder]]s in the town's history, the Libertarian project ended in 2016.<ref name="vox" /><ref name="newrepublic" /><ref>{{cite web |last=Austin |first=Elizabeth |date=August 30, 2020 |title=Libertarians Took Control of This Small Town. It Didn't End Well. |url=https://washingtonmonthly.com/2020/08/30/libertarians-took-control-of-this-small-town-it-didnt-end-well |access-date=July 21, 2023 |publisher=[[Washington Monthly (website)|Washington Monthly]]}}</ref>