Gasoline-Powered Leaf Blowers

I am most interested in the recent letters dealing with gardeners and their leaf-blowing machines. These are the bane of my existence.

I retired recently, thinking life at home would be leisurely, only to find the noise level in my neighborhood provoking me into returning to work to escape it!

My neighbors and I keep a schedule of when gardeners arrive at various houses and start churning up their noise-makers, and we do our marketing and other errands on those days. Who ever heard of an internal combustion engine, not mounted in a steel case, but worn by a strap on a man’s back, as he walks around outside, emitting noise, vibrations and dust. Unimaginable, until the inventor of the leaf blower came along! Oh how we hate them around my neighborhood!

We have contacted our councilman, Zev Yaroslavsky, to see about having them outlawed. To no avail however. Other cities have outlawed them. If the argument is based on “water conservation,” then I suggest a return to the old-fashioned broom and garden rake. They worked just fine for eons.

G.W. INMAN-GEHR

Los Angeles