Controversy Over Ban on Leaf Blowers
Re The Spin, July 7: Hey, Bill Boyarsky, how about if I bring a leaf blower downtown and fire it up outside your office when you’re on the phone interviewing a source or trying to complete a column on deadline?
I work at home. I don’t live on the Westside (nor would I). I make less money than you or the gardeners who labor nearby (I’m a graduate student). But I do find the din of leaf blowers intolerable.
I live close to my neighbors and when the gardeners next door start up their battalion of leaf blowers, I have to tell whomever I’m talking to on the phone that I’ll have to call them back. I can’t write. I can’t read.
The real problem here is people who plant lawns and nonnative plants, then pour on the water they require to survive in the semiarid environment. And people who allow no bush to go untrimmed, insist no leaf be allowed to litter the ground, and equate happiness with a well-manicured lawn and “clean walkways.”
How about if we ban leaf blowers until the manufacturers come up with a quieter version, instead of ending the ban until they do? In the meantime, let the gardeners raise their rates.
BLAKE GUMPRECHT
Los Angeles
West L.A. and all the communities Boyarsky mentioned that promoted the demise of the leaf blower (West Hollywood, Beverly Hills, South Pasadena, etc.) have one thing in common and it’s not elitism. It is yards. These cities are tired of the noise and air pollution generated by the blowers.
And don’t give me the line that the gardeners are going to use our precious water to hose down the driveways. I have yet in 24 years to see my gardener pick up a hose and water anything.
MICHAEL P. RIVES
Los Angeles
Leaf blowing is dirty, noisy and dangerous. Prohibiting it is in the public interest. It is more than “just one more noise,” as Boyarsky cavalierly claims. There is no “hidden cost” as Frank del Olmo threatens (Commentary, July 7). A few bucks to have gardeners do a good job is better than having them rip through it in the name of “efficiency.”
DAVID RAIKLEN
Santa Monica
So now that we have a ban on leaf blowers, there will be no enforcement. Why pass the ordinance in the first place?
Leaf blowers are a nuisance, plain and simple. All leaf blowers are good for is shifting the dirt and grime from one yard to another. We pay for street cleaning, and then the gardeners come along and blow the streets dirty again. Of course, we can’t park our cars on the street during street cleaning without getting a ticket. But the gardeners can litter our streets and get paid for it!
TERRY BRANNON
Los Angeles
