by Janet Cox
Leaf blowers are everywhere in Sacramento. I’m glad I moved away from there because it is not a quiet place. Where I used to live and work I would listen to leaf blowers 3 hours a day, seven days a week. On Thursday, it would be all day–from 6:30 in the morning to 5:00 in the afternoon.
We lived adjacent to a large upscale shopping center with an office complex next door. With all of its beautiful trees, their gardeners had the enormous task of cleaning up leaves each morning, seven days a week, including holidays. They would use 2-3 leaf blowers with their mufflers removed and the sound would be deafening. This noise precluded our ever using our outside deck and garden area in the morning.
On holidays when we were home relaxing or entertaining guests, they were particularly irritating. On the first Thanksgiving in our townhouse, I was just putting the turkey in the oven when my cousin and aunt arrived; I had not seen them in four years. When they arrived, two gardeners were on the other side of the fence with leaf blowers going full blast. We had to shout our hellos while we helped my elderly aunt out of the car and explain by gesturing and pointing to show my cousin where he could park his car.
We wrote numerous letters, made phone calls, and issued complaints to the property management, but didn’t get a response until we wrote to the owner at his home. Then management called and said that their gardeners would not use their leaf blowers near our fence. That would last a few weeks at a time; then the gardeners would be over next to the fence again until we called to complain again.
Our complex also employed gardeners with leaf blowers that came every Thursday. We repeatedly asked our Homeowners Association to hire gardeners who did not use leaf blowers–but to no avail. At 6:00 am blowers would start at the office building next door, then at the shopping center, and then the gardeners at our townhouse complex would arrive as I was leaving for work.
At my workplace, Thursdays would be the day that I would travel to visit our clients in their homes. In this beautiful tree-lined community I had to listen to leaf blowers being used in every block near each client I visited.
Our Courts for centuries have agreed that the Constitution gives us rights to “the quiet enjoyment of our property,” and this is why every municipality has noise laws in place (though they are very often not enforced). We are paying a price for this, in the loss of our peace of mind.
Janet, I could not agree with you more! Leaf blowers are indeed the scourge of humanity. Whatever happened to raking up or collecting leaves without registering at unbearable decibel levels? Most of the time when I observe leaf blower activity, I see that the debris is merely being relocated. So blow your leaves and dirt and dust around, make people cough from the particulate (it can’t be healthy to breathe that stuff) and then it will land in another yard and they can blow it back over. Ridiculous. Leaf blowers are a nuisance. And what, really, do they do? Other than move debris around, not much that I can see.
When I was living in Key West, paying 3,500/month for a very small house (not including utilities) in Old Town, the landlord provide weekly lawn care included in my rent. I was working nights and rarely got to bed before 8am. My shift was 6pm to 6am.
Around 8am on lawn care day.. leaf blowers. Full blast. Let me tell you, I had a fit. I went right out to them and said “My rent pays for your service. There will be no leaf blowers on this property as long as I am the leasing party. Fin. Put those monstrous things away.” Well, they complied, and I called the landlord to let him know that the yard was very small and with a high fence, the debris just blew around and landed back in the yard. Such idiocy. While I lived there, the leaf blowing ceased and the yard did not suffer one bit as a result. I’m sure the lizards and butterflies were also much happier.
Recently, I called the lawn care company contracted by my homeowner’s association to let them know that their hourly paid employees were intentionally spending unnecessary time with the weed wacking and leaf blowing to add more time to their paychecks. I documented the repetitive and unnecessary activity. I has significantly lessened since my call.
Quite frankly, I think leaf blowers should be banned. And as I understand it, they have been banned in some places. Now if we would all just catch up and ban them altogether. Perhaps some action can be taken to make this a reality. Any suggestions? I think it was petitioning that ended the leaf blowing nonsense in the places where it is no longer allowed.
absolutely! I live in the west hills of portland OR, not so snooty but lots of old wealth discretely around, and beautiful old mansions and brick buildings–and no end of wretched noise from wretched leaf blowers, wretched edgers, wretched trimmers, and litteral choruses of wretched back-up beepers at the ever-present wretched new construction sites where the beauteous old buildings are being ripped up and replaced by vomitorious wretched high-rise rabbit warrens…yech! retch! also huge trucks robotically hauling huge loads of huge and dirty broken concrete slabs, jack-hammers, etc. just down the hill from the nation’s largest city park, Washington Park which adjoins something like thirty miles of parkland meandering down the Columbia river towards the sea. you have to go pretty far into the park to avoid various small and large gasoline engines, devilish little two-stroke gimmicks…nuclear war would be preferable! I love the crows and the pigeons, the squirrels–silent except for the crows who are always in conclave, cawing, a wonderful noise on a rainy day! but the leaf blowers are part of the human madness that is engulfing the planet. corporate fools!!! if the communists weren’t also money- and power-mad puritans they’d have a good idea there. down with digits!
its 24/7 where i live i want to die