Here’s a letter to the editor written by Karen Bray, inspired by Andy Levin’s Newton Tab Op-Ed about the proposed leaf blower ban, in this week’s Newton Tab. This letter was posted on the Newton Lower Falls listserv and kicked off a big flurry of responses from neighbors – everything from wholehearted agreement to vehement disagreement.
I asked my neighbor across the street, who has been using Mo Blow and Go Guys for many years, if he would be willing to try a Green Landscaper who rakes, or would he be willing to ask his traditional leaf blowing landscaper if he would consider raking.
I don’t know this neighbor very well, and, in spite of that, he offered to try the Eco-Friendly and Neighbor-Friendly Landscaper who rakes instead of using gas-powered leaf blowers.
After some time I asked him how the price and results compared:
He said Michael DeLacey of GoGreen Landscapers is CHEAPER! and the results are excellent. Michael and Company have a thriving business in Newton and have been landscaping in Newton for at least 8 years.
So, the standard refrain from traditional landscapers that they would have to charge exorbitant rates is just NOT true.
I have a list of at least 8 Green Landscaping companies who work and thrive in Newton without using gas-powered leaf blowers. With a ban, if all landscape companies jump on board, there will plenty of work for all companies and no unreasonable penalty for consumers. A ban will level the playing field and make life tolerable for the rest of us who work at home. Our small businesses are being impacted by leaf blowers: we can’t read, think, make intricate decisions, talk with clients or problem solve when our fight or flight mechanism is constantly triggered by leaf blowers. So, other small home businesses, a number which is constantly growing in Newton, are experiencing an unreasonable financial penalty now.
Some Green Landscapers use the occasional small electric leaf blower. But electric leaf blowers in the hands of many traditional landscapers who do not care about neighbors can be horribly loud. Most electric blowers are just as loud and still stir up nasty dust, fecal matter, asphalt bits, and fine particulate matter that lodges in our children’s lungs.
Sincerely,
Karen Bray
That is wonderful. Property owners in Newton should be made aware of these option (and perhaps incentivized by the city for using them), but still provided with the choice of how they want to landscape their own parcels. Moreover, these services do nothing for the individual who desires to maintain his/her property his/her self. In such cases there is not one compelling reason for removing from consideration the option of using the most efficient tool available during acceptable time of the day. Not one.
The environmental argument is not compelling unless one could produce evidence that the health benefits outweigh in some quantifiable sense the convenience to the landowner. The noise arguments are even more absurd. There are abundant sources of noise in the greater Newton environment that may or may not be annoying to the residents. I live not far from one of our walkable elementary schools where, weather permitting, the activity of children on the playground result in quite a din when my windows are open. It would be patently absurd of me to think that such activity should be curbed.
There is no substantive difference when it comes to leaf blowers, lawn mowers, snow blowers or any of the other petrochemically driven conveniences of modern life. The benefits to the property owner of employing these tools far and away dwarf any inconvenience suffered by some hypersensitive neighbors.
Amen, Elmo.
I would like comment on commercial development in Dedham. Dedham Square goes back many decades to the days of the Saco Vanzetti Trial and to Colonial times when it became the Norfolk County seat. it may have benefitted from post World WarII development along the commercial strips that are near Mother Brook that exchanges water between the Charles and Neponsett Rivers. Legacy Place is the most recent of such developments. It had two assets in my view. A major bookstore and rail line both made the high density apartments next to the line much more more liveable. Unfortunately the bookstore like the one in Chestnut Hill has departed the scene. The density of the Legal Place units seemed much, much higher than anything proposed in Newtonville, probably comparable to what’s proposed for Riverside.
Sorry the above should be in the lengthy development thread/
When I was a kid there were successful landscaping companies, nice looking lawns and no leaf blowers. I don’t recall anyone at the time saying our society was suffering from the scourge of raking and that someone had better invent the leaf blower.
I hired a landscaper who rakes only. The rates were no more expensive than companies that used leaf blowers. Furthermore, the price of landscaping didn’t come down when leafblowers came into use, so there is no reason for it to go up if rakes are used.
Steve and Lassy: I hear you. My yard has not seen a leaf blower in the years I’ve lived here. And yes, for most Newton homes, raking alone really should be sufficient.
But it’s a very different story for businesses, especially large property owners; including college campuses, golf courses, large apartment complexes and our city parks and schools. We’re talking hundreds of thousands, maybe more, added to maintenance bills.
And it’s not just that. Finding the labor to rake is not going to be easy. Our workforce and the cost of labor is different from “back when” we were kids Steve.
Everybody who is concerned about local tax rates and wants our tax dollars to be spent wisely, should be concerned about the cost of clean-up at our public schools, city parks and other municipal building will cost if we adopt a leaf blower ban.
We also ought to be concerned with costs associated with “policing” this possible new ordinance. Already we hear that as an issue with the current minor restrictions, and with cautions its “unenforceable.”
In my view it will not be a good use of tax dollars to pay for the necessary policing. We don’t have unlimited funding; our budget is a zero sum game. What gets spent in one place has to come from someplace else in the budget. Or in place of services not rendered.
@Dan, if the current state of enforcement prevails we don’t need to worry about this since little is enforced in Newton. Slow down when you cross over to Brookline but lights are optional in Newton 🙂
Perhaps we should be happy when ill conceived ordinances don’t get enforced
I think the key difference between leaf blowers and the other pieces of gasoline-driven equipment that Elmo mentions lie in their application. If leaf blowers were simply used for clearing leaves during the autumn and spring cleanups, then I believe there would be far fewer complaints. As it is, however, they are gratuitously over-used, particularly as a general cleanup tool after a yard crew has descended upon a property. It is as if a stray leaf or grass clipping lying on a path cannot possibly be tolerated.
As for comparing children to yard equipment, then I’ll take the sound of children playing any day.
Dan Fahey Said “We also ought to be concerned with costs associated with “policing” this possible new ordinance. Already we hear that as an issue with the current minor restrictions, and with cautions its “unenforceable.”
In my view it will not be a good use of tax dollars to pay for the necessary policing. We don’t have unlimited funding; our budget is a zero sum game. What gets spent in one place has to come from someplace else in the budget. Or in place of services not rendered.
Read more: Letter to the Editor – Leaf blowers | Village 14 City of Newton, Massachusetts http://village14.com/newton-ma/2015/06/letter-to-the-editor-leaf-blowers/#ixzz3cPnZW0lE
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Wow! I actually find myself in agreement in with Dan Fahey.
Greg, I understand your point. Maybe leaf blowers should only be used in the fall for leaves. This will solve your problem regarding large property owners. Right now, leaf blowers are not only used for leaves, they are used for dirt, dust and debris all year long. I can’t tell you how many times I see workers using leaf blowers to blow dirt from one driveway into the street or the driveway next door. Would people be willing to compromise and allow leafblowers for a period of time in the fall only? Some of us have neighbors who don’t want a single leaf on their lawn, and/or they want a pristine driveway.
Robert and Lassy I think have got it right. Leaf blowers are an annoyance, but they’d be an acceptable annoyance if they were used for their intended purpose. They’re not. Leaf blowers are used for grass clippings, dust, pollen, dirt, spent flowers, seed pods, basically everything and anything, everywhere, all the time. If you could limit their use by landscaping companies to times of the year that there’s actual leaf cleanup, let’s say March 15-May 15 for Spring and October 1 to year’s-end in fall, that seems like common sense to me.
I am working from home today and generally do one day a week. As the front loader is idling for an hour outside my home office window I wonder if we should limit construction noises during the workday next. Oh, there goes a chain saw which is close to a leaf blower whine, something else for the list?
On Lake Ave we have been figuratively under siege for the last 14 months with a street that was more navigable when the snow piled up since it keep the construction from continuing. All said I think, and have been told, that once the work is done the street will be great. I would hate to think that some noise would lead to a ban on tools that would prolong a project like this.