City Council Deals a Blow to Leaf Blowers

Blowing away a noisy neighborhood nuisance, the Los Angeles City Council voted 9 to 4 Tuesday to prohibit gas-powered leaf blowers in residential areas, after an hourlong debate marked by celebrity appearances and bad puns.

“Is it a conflict of interest when politicians are talking about hot air?” Councilman Richard Alarcon said before casting his ballot against the blowers.

Los Angeles joins 42 other California cities in restricting the blowers, which environmentalists say are health hazards as well as disruptions of peace and quiet. The move came despite protests from gardeners--one wearing a T-shirt that said “Use a Blower, Go to Jail”--that the tools are crucial to their work.

Leading the charge against the blowers were actors Peter Graves and Meredith Baxter, who survived their City Hall debuts without signing autographs.

“It sounds like a ‘Mission Impossible,’ ” Council President John Ferraro said as Graves took the podium, while other lawmakers hummed the familiar theme song to the 1960s TV spy-thriller series.

But Graves vowed not to self-destruct like the tape recorder that gave him instructions on the show. And when the dust had settled, “Mission Impossible” became mission accomplished.

“Leaf blowers are bad. They call them leaf blowers, because, indeed, they do blow leaves around and around and around. But they also blow other things around,” the 70-year-old actor said, mentioning fungus as an example. “Are we going to put masks on our kids? In some areas of the world, plants, flowers and trees, and their arrangements together, have deep religious and philosophical meanings.”

Sitcom star Baxter, who plays an assistant principal on the new show “The Faculty” and was a suburban mother in the 1980s hit “Family Ties,” ticked off statistics about the dangers of gas-powered blowers.

“It flies in the face of all rational thinking to continue using blowers,” she told the council, barely finishing before Ferraro cut her off.

“If we give everyone the same time we gave you, we’ll be here till tomorrow,” he said.

Despite the heavy gavel, debate raged for more than an hour.

Pro-blower council members were Mike Hernandez, Rudy Svorinich Jr., Joel Wachs and Rita Walters, an odd coalition of inner-city liberals and pro-business conservatives from far-flung suburban areas of the city.

“When you talk about noise pollution in my neighborhood, I’m listening to freeway traffic, I’m listening to trains, I’m listening to gangs--the blowers are not that much of an issue,” said Hernandez, who represents a heavily Latino district of downtown. “What is an issue is the men who carry them on their backs.”

Svorinich, a former paint store owner, said that electric blowers are unrealistic for sprawling lawns because the longest extension cords available are 100 feet, and that battery-operated blowers often die after a couple hours.

“While it’s a quality of life issue to some people in the city, it’s a livelihood issue for other people in the city,” Svorinich said, referring to his own gardener, a father of four who scurries around Los Angeles trying to complete each job in 45 minutes. “I think it’s presumptuous of this council to say, ‘Guess what, folks? You’re going to do [your job] less efficiently, for less customers, for less money.’ ”

The matter must return to the council for final approval in about a month, but Tuesday’s vote was the most significant step in the process.

Sponsored by Councilman Marvin Braude, who represents the Westside and parts of the San Fernando Valley, the measure prohibits gas-powered blowers within 500 feet of a residence, rather than banning them altogether, as Braude tried to do in 1990.

The move comes less than a week after the Southland’s air quality board launched a program in which businesses can buy and scrap residents’ gas-powered lawn mowers or leaf blowers in exchange for credits toward meeting smog regulations. The idea is to provide incentives for consumers to replace their old lawn equipment with cleaner-burning alternatives powered by lower-emission engines, batteries or muscle.

Over the last five years, other cities throughout the region have banned blowers, including Beverly Hills, Santa Monica, Dana Point, Laguna Beach, South Pasadena, Palos Verdes Estates, Lomita and Claremont.

“Blowers are a serious matter,” Braude told his colleagues Tuesday. “We’re not suggesting that we put the gardeners out of business. We’re simply suggesting that if they must use a blower, they use an electric blower that is significantly quieter than the gasoline-fired one and that does not pollute.”

Braude also suggested brooms and rakes.