Leaf Blowers

Your “Year 1998 in Review” photo (Dec. 30) shows the brooms of gardeners, symbolic of their protest of the ban on leaf blowers. The ban has turned out to be purely symbolic. All of the gardeners servicing homes on my street have resumed using leaf blowers with arrogance and impunity. Reporting violators requires one to incriminate one’s neighbors, which guarantees it won’t happen. The politicians took credit, but because there is no enforcement, nothing has changed.

HENRY A. HESPENHEIDE

Los Angeles