Brookline police arrested a Waltham man who was stopped for using a leaf blower before 9 a.m., on Saturday, Sept. 14, Wicked Local Brookline reports.
A police officer attempted to stop the work and told them that leaf blowing is not allowed in Brookline between May 15 and Sept. 15, and that they cannot use leaf blowers before 9 a.m., on Saturdays, Sundays or holidays. Saturday was Yom Kippur.
Not only should Newton not follow Brookline in regulating leaf blowers, but Brookline should repeal this nanny-state regulation. I have no quarrel with leaf blowers, leaf blowers are a tool of the trade.
It certainly doesn’t seem unreasonable to not permit their use til 9AM on the weekends.
The violator should have simply complied immediately. Had he, I wouldn’t be surprised if the officer had let him off. Choosing not to give his name also was probably a signal [not legal]?
Did Newton ever pass a leafblower ordinance?
Totally in favor to restrict lawn movers & leaf blowers to after 9 AM on weekends and holidays – 7:30 AM lawn work was a regularity on my street this past summer! Also, don’t allow crews to blow dirt & debris from yards into street – some don’t even both to turn off the blower when a car drives by – they should sweep it up from the yard! Of course, it would be unrealistic to think police could monitor violations, but it would be quite easy for a website to be set up for residents to log complaints.
Ok, Newton. Now just look in the face of who you and Ted Hess Mahan could be questioning and arresting. That face works in your yard and it aint racist to wonder if what that face has in his wallet. Arrest working immigrants — one by one here in Newton. In the mean time — let’s buy more snow dragons because — you know — the SUN can’t do the same job as oven temperature steam which is power by — well, it’s powered by the same stuff lead blowers eat. Nice policy – well thought out
I see nothing wrong with restricting the use of noisy machinery before 9 a.m. on weekends and holidays.
Dan, so far Newton hasn’t passed a leaf blower ordinance yet. And I hope that they don’t. We’re already paying an extra $500K/year in taxes over and beyond the Prop 2.5 threshold to hire 4 new police officers to conduct crosswalk stings. In 2018, is Chief Mintz going to get another $500K/year over and beyond the Prop 2.5 threshold to hire 4 new police officers to enforce leaf blower regulations?
I’m not sure if the guy was an illegal alien but if he was, that’s a different issue unconnected to leaf blowers.
Hoss,
Brilliant. If you’re for enforcing a legitimate noise ordinance, you must be against immigrant workers.
Less brilliant. Comparing snow removal to lawn maintenance. Snow removal is a matter of safety and mobility. Lawn maintenance is a matter of aesthetics, and increasingly indefensible aesthetics, at that. Lawns are barren monocultures. Maintaining a lawn requires water, chemicals, and gas (to power mowers and blowers). And, for many homeowners, maintaining property comes at the expense of other homeowners’ interest in quiet enjoyment of their property.
So, the question is whether we want to have policies and practices that support an industry that does not promote the public good. I’d say no.
It’s unfortunate that the wished-for decline of the lawn maintenance industry will come at the expense of low-paying jobs for immigrants. I’d be in favor of programs to educate those same workers for other jobs.
Wouldn’t a leaf blower ban be a boon for low paying jobs since homeowners who are above raking their own leaves would still have to pay someone else and raking requires more person hours than blowing?
Not advocating. Just saying.
8am on Weekdays and 9am on weekends seems like a very reasonable restriction. But to ban these tools would make the lives of some of the hardest working people even more difficult.
Many of the professionals who are or work for landscapers get paid by the job. If you take their tools away, they earn less. In many cases, these are immigrants who are trying to create a better life. Why would we want to discourage that ?
Charlie Shapiro, et al — Ordinance 20-13 covers noise and times. (Found that right on newtonma.gov ) They could asking to amend those times, instead certain alderman want to ban specific landscaping tools. I just don’t want Newton to be buffaloed into thinking the ban is because of noise; Newton got that covered.
Here are the reduced noise times:
(A) Between 7:00 a.m. and 8:00 p.m. on weekdays; or
(B) Between 9:30 a.m. and 8:00 p.m. on Saturdays, Sundays and legal holidays as established in section 2-26 of these revised ordinances.
I’m with what most people seem to be posting here- that a reasonable early- and late-hours ban on noise (like leaf blowers) makes sense. Living close enough to a building that frequently ignores noise restrictions, I’m all for it.
I don’t see the arrest being an issue here, as the man was not arrested for leaf-blowing, but for refusing to submit to a request for ID. It’s pretty silly to imply there was some racial profiling going on in this case. As for citations, the people hiring the landscaping companies (the building landlords or management companies) might want to have some accountability too, but not sure how that would happen.
As for leaf-blowers in general, I get that they are preferable in their intended use and don’t see the point in banning them outright- but too often I seem them being used to blow dust around on sidewalks where a large broom or sweeper would be so much more efficient. That drives me crazy, it doesn’t even make sense.
Sorry, should say “Here are the allowed times…”
Greg Reibman — Assuming that thought is right — exactly how much more will each home be paying for lawn service?
Moreover, last Fall I saw three City DPW workers on the small traffic island at Chestnut/Beacon blowing leaves. How many DPW rakers = three leaf blowers? And is raking what we want DPW do to doing?
Sean is saying that leaves are not safety – snow is safety. Try walking a steep sidewalk w wet leaves, or stopping a car (while a biker crosses) w leaves. Snow on a traffic island or unused playground is not a safety issue. We’re getting silly.
A noise ordinance is one thing… Ted Hess-Mahans draconian leaf blower ban for made up reasons is a whole other.
Mike
If we required them to use quiet rakes, more hard-working immigrants would have jobs, our mornings would be more peaceful and the whole process would be greener. The workers would also not suffer from long-term hearing loss. I rarely see them wearing proper protection equipment. So, if you’re going to stand up for immigrants, why not stand up for them having safe working conditions instead of sacrificing their hearing for six bucks an hour and no benefits? If reasonable practices were mandated, their life conditions would probably go up. If Newton residents were shamed into cutting off an exploitative working arrangement what’s the harm? It’s too bad that similarly exploited cleaning ladies and nannies aren’t exhibiting publicly disruptive behavior so that their underground economy isn’t called into question.
Take care of your own lawn or pay an honest wage to have someone else do it in a way that is considerate of your neighbors.
The decibel level of the mowers and blowers that descend on my peaceful summer weekend gardening mornings is out of control. They sweep in with crews of five or six like an invading force. I wish I lived in Brookline so that I could know that somebody would do something about it.
If Sean and KarenN are willing to landscape my yard quietly for free (and they can do a good job) I’ll hire them.
Some other thoughts.
Perhaps lawn care workers enjoy working outdoors with power tools. They may prefer landscape work to possibly more renumerative inside work (such as being a cashier/stocker at Whole foods).
If they voluntarily choose to work (and are paid in compliance with labor laws) then the labor is non-exploitive, wether or not you would be willing to do it yourself at their pay rate.
If they feel exploited, they can form a union, ask for a raise, or look for other work. The hearing protection issue is legitimate, but that’s an issue for MassOSHA or the workers themselves (hearing plugs are not that expensive at CVS).
Let’s also keep in mind that tools enhance worker productivity, making their lives easier and their labor worth that much more.
A less productive lawn care employee may end up pricing himself out of a job or a living. There is a reason you don’t see too many mule spinners and hand loom weavers anymore. The productivity just wasn’t there.
While being priced out of a menial job might not be a disaster for Sean or KarenN (who can afford to garden in her leisure time), it could be quite bad for those working on the lawn crew.
Police were enforcing a noise ordinance and the guy breaking it acted like a prick about it so he was arrested.
My guess is you’ve never done a day of hard labor in your life Karen. I’m sure the landscapers would love to spend all day with a rake and a push-mower. On the other hand I know quite factually that anyone who does landscaping as a job prefers living in the 21st century where we have invented things to make our lives easier. Some of you people honestly astound me with your thinking (or lack there of)
Mike
My guess is Mike (Not Striar) is a little too proud of his ability to use a rake and overestimates how special a skill it is. Karen doesn’t like the noise bro. We all appreciate your sweeping generalizations about women and people in Newton but mostly we don’t. I’ll tell you what, you can leaf blower my lawn any time Mr. Authority on hard work.
So, Hoss, are you asserting that safety is the primary objective folks have in mind when they have lawn maintenance done? From May to November, homeowner’s main concern is preventing wet leaves from accumulating on their walks? That having the entire lawn mowed and blown is to keep their walks clear?
Keeping most walks free of wet leaves is probably a ten-minute task every few days in the fall, accomplished quite easily with a rake. Let’s deal with the reality of the situation. People employ people who use leaf-blowers for aesthetic reasons, and the aesthetic results — we are increasingly becoming aware — come with public costs that no longer make sense to bear: chemicals, overuse of water, carbon emissions, limiting bio-diversity. Oh, yeah. And unnecessary noise.
Sean — In some other post you said you were a former prosecutor. Maybe that was a joke? Here’s a lawn worker as part of a team, not the business owner or team foreman, approached by police, asked for id and then did exactly what I’d do, thought that ridiculous/abuse of authority and walked away. He was arrested and we don’t know if he actually had id or was a citizen. The foreman was handed a citation. Seeing that, you don’t have any concerns for what this kind of situations this policy might create?? If you have worked in criminal prosecution — serious question — why did the man need to produce id when he wasn’t operating a car? Why was he asked question when he wasn’t in charge of the operation and the man in charge was present? This is not comfortable to me in the last.
Last time this topic came around it was a broader conversation about neighborhood, public health, and environmental impact, along with the economics. Leaf blowers may be “tools of the trade” as Allen Ciccone recently noted, and they facilitate the quick clearing of leaves which allows landscapers to charge less for the same service. But in addition to noise impacts, leaf blowers are associated with increased asthma and other respiratory issues due to the large amount of particulate matter they blow into air suspension, and gas-powered blowers have high carbon emissions. My point: the dollars a homeowner saves during a lawn cleanup comes with offsetting health and environmental costs, and all of these should be part of the equation.
Hoss, Sean has no problem with people being arrested for “aesthetic” crimes. If brown people with power tools are arrested, that is how a greener and more sustainable Newton is created.
In his world, everyone is physically fit and would like to spend their time raking leaves and mowing the lawn. No one is ever old, infirm or busy with a job.
Sean is very concerned about “carbon emissions” from leaf blowers (with a 50cc engine), but causing 1000s of cars and trucks to idle in backed up traffic at the Parker st lights/Newton Centre every day is not a problem.
Steve Siegel — Whereas the lawn worker can finish the job enjoying an unfiltered cigarette, drive home in a “crotch rocket” (a racing motorcycle), tinker with his outboard motor before the weekend, light some tiki torches to keep the mosquitoes away, use his gas powered generator to light up his workshop, let his kid practice with a gas powered mini-helicopter ( a rather noisy one), take down a few trees with a chainsaw, play some bagpipes really annoyingly …. at what point to we stop chipping away?
The man wasn’t arrested for operating the leaf blower. He was arrested for refusing to give ID so the police officer could write a citation. That would have happened whatever the citation was for – it’s a really stupid way to act with police. His crew chief gave ID and was given a citation, no arrest.
He was arrested for refusing to comply with an insulting request in the enforcement of a mere ordinance which was no criminal implications. The police could have easily mailed the violation papers if the foreman was not present. The foreman was present but they chose to hassle the full lawn team. I’d like to here a full explanation on why any of us need to show id where no evidence of a crime is present. We certainly don’t need to talk to police — ever. It’s their job to work around that part of our freedom.
To the best of my knowledge, the principal objective here was not to ban the use of leaf blowers but to limit their use during times when people might be reasonably trying to get some rest.
Hoss, I am not arguing to get rid of leaf blowers. But in response to those who say that it will cost more to homeowners if leaf blowers aren’t used, I am noting that there are health and environmental costs too that should not be ignored. And to the question of where we stop, I’ll go out on a limb and suggest that in Newton the items you note represent a tiny fraction of the daily impact of leafblowers.
The judge dismissed charges today in the Brookline matter, basically saying that law enforcement is not ordinance enforcement.
“…the complaint that was forwarded from the court clerk only contained three civil violations. Because civil infractions are not subject to criminal arraignment, Judge Mary Dacey-White dismissed the case…”
http://www.wickedlocal.com/brookline/news/x511625921/Judge-throws-out-Brookline-leaf-blower-arrest-prior-to-arraignment#ixzz2fGC2mXEg
That speaks to ability to prosecute a civil infraction, but not, if I’m reading correctly, saying that the police should not enforce .
I’d pursue civil rights violations — demanding id and arrest for refusal in an ordinance matter. He lost wages and his character was publicly damaged.
Without weighing in on the ordinance itself, this ordinance is on the books, and applies to “any person” using a leaf blower, hence the two persons using the leaf blowers were cited (the fact that one of them was the foreman seems to be irrelevant, although the ordinance does mention citing “companies” as well.) The ordinance provides for enforcement by certain town agents, including the police. When one is being cited for violating a civil ordinance, one needs to identify oneself – otherwise, no civil ordinance could ever be enforced. A relevant question would be was he asked to identify himself so the officer could write up the citation, or was he asked to *produce* identification, which is very different.
Tricia — If both the worker and the employer refused to identify themselves, the city needs to issue the violation to the homeowner. The “any person” can’t be literal or no business would be cited. This is not a criminal matter, employees are not responsible for their employer’s code violations. Lastly, our right to remain silent holds in all contexts, even under water boarding and Brookline policing. Man, is this infuriating!
Actually Tricia — If “any person” is literal then there are lots and lots of places in law and ordinances where the male pronoun is used. I don’t think those laws exempt females.
I’m all for the idea of pushing the noise ordinance changes and I don’t love the idea of banning specific tools of the trade. But my question is this: Aside from a 1-time Spring cleanup and the prime leaf falling season (oct/nov), what the hell are these guys blowing all over the place every day during the Summer? The army of leaf blowers operating mid-summer would be humorous if it weren’t so pathetic – mulch the grass clippings or bag them.
My concern about this has far less to do with the impact on hired services (if you can afford the service without the ban you can probably afford the service with the ban) and more to do with the impact on homeowners who wish to avail themselves of such tools for manicuring their yard on their own rather than having to use a rake. Modulo reasonable time limits I see no real reason why Joe or Jane Property Owner should be forced by the city to use one implement rather than another.
The noise argument is not compelling. I live close to an elementary school and when working during the day with the windows open, am inundated with the noise of kids playing. Restricting such noise is clearly absurd. So why leaf blowers? If one’s use of a blower rather than a rake means more time spent with friends and family, then the resultant noise is far from “unnecessary.” Indeed, in the end, a pressure wave is a pressure wave.
The health and safety argument is also not compelling. Where is the evidence of death and illness resulting from leaf blower-based particulate matter? Let’s see the study. More to the point, if leaf blowers were banned in Newton, who really thinks there would be any significant change to health outcomes? The mere existence of an effect is far different from its having a level of significance that warrants an outright ban rather than a limitation on use.
Hoss, here’s the section of the ordinance:
4. Enforcement and Penalties
a. This bylaw may be enforced in accordance with Articles 10.1,10.2 and/or 10.3 of the General By-Laws by a police officer, the Building Commissioner or hislher designee, the Commissioner of Public Works or hislher designee and/or the Director o fPublic Health or hislher designee.
b. For the purposes of this section “person” shall be defined as any individual, company, occupant, real property owner, or agent in control of real property. Each violation shall be subject to fines according to the following scheduler
(a) a warning or $50.00 for the first offense;
(b) $100.00 for the second offense;
(c) $200.00 for the third offense;
(d) $200.00 for successive violations, plus
(e) court costs for any enforcement action.
While in theory I am all for a ban on gas powered leaf blowers both on noise and pollution grounds. That said until we get serious about climate change and use of petroleum an outright ban is not needed and impractical.
In the meantime I am very much in favor of limiting hours and perhaps even time of year. I really am sick of being woken up at 7am on a saturday by dueling leafblower from multiple neighbors’ lawn care companies. Seriously wait until 9, I would be cool with that.
I have been trying to push reasonable regulations of landscaping equipment generally for all of the public health, public safety, environmental and quality of life issues discussed above. The Board of Aldermen passed a resolution to create a task force that would include various stakeholders and citizens as well as department heads to come up with reasonable regulations. Unfortunately, although a number of citizens have expressed an interest in serving, so far my colleagues and I have been unable to generate much interest in participation from golf courses, institutions, and landscaping companies. I regret that my responsibilities as chairman of Land Use, which included an unprecedented number of applications for special permits this year as well as the protracted review and discussions concerning the Riverside Station development, have prevented me from investing more time and effort in soliciting participation from all of the stakeholders.
The point of creating a task force was to come up with clear, fair and enforceable regulations about the time and manner of operating noisy, polluting landscaping equipment. It should be noted that Newton already has similar restrictions on hours of operation of noisy equipment on weekends and holidays. The incident and arrest in Brookline highlights the fact that even if the regulations are clear and enforceable, not everyone will comply with them.
Before moving down the street, I would wake to leaf blowers starting at 7 AM Monday (truly) and continue with every lawn in the neighborhood in cycle until 9 PM Saturday. A few times there was violations by contractors on Sundays at 7:30 AM.
As quality of life issue, 7 AM is VERY early. 8 AM would be better for a myriad of reasons with 9 AM on weekend.
I didn’t see a link or copy/paste of Newton’s actual ordinance in this thread- apologies if it’s here and I didn’t see it scanning through.
Assuming this is current (updated May 2012?
http://www.newtonma.gov/civicax/filebank/documents/44022
” (f) Time Restrictions.
…the generation of any noise from all electric motors and/or internal combustion engines
employed in yard, garden, or grounds maintenance is prohibited except during the following time periods:
(A) Between 7:00 a.m. and 8:00 p.m. on weekdays; or
(B) Between 9:30 a.m. and 8:00 p.m. on Saturdays, Sundays and legal holidays…
… the generation of any noise from construction and demolition activity is prohibited except
during the following time periods:
(A) Between 7:00 a.m. and 7:00 p.m. on weekdays; or
(B) Between: 8:00 a.m. and 7:00 p.m. on Saturdays;
(C) Generation of any noise from construction and demolition activity is prohibited at any hour on Sundays
and legal holidays…”
Doug Haslam — I’m not sure that’s the right one. The original proposal mirrored Brookline’s, i.e., banning leaf blowers (specifically) from May to Sep.
I was talking about the noise ordinance in effect now- not the proposed ban (which I don’t agree with myself, much as I dislike those dadgum contraptions)
I just spotted Ted Hess Mahan’s post. Ted if you’re willing, can you comment on what went on in Brookline? Do we in Newton have any ordinances that police enforce? And would we also ask police to enforce this, similar to Brookline?.
I’ll refrain from follow-up questions/comments — feel free to describe your vision on how this would work out in the wild
From the news story above, Brookline doesn’t allow operation of leaf blowers before 9 AM on Saturdays and that’s what the citation was for.
From Doug’s post above, the Newton ordinance doesn’t allow operation of leaf blowers (or other noisy equipment) before 9:30 AM on a Saturday.
So the same guys, doing there same thing, at the same time here in Newton would already be violating city ordinances, with or without any new leaf blower ordinances.
Jerry Reilly — The seasonal ban in Brookline ended Yom Kippur weekend. The crew violated the ban by a day or two
Leaf blowers blast fertilizer, lead, pesticides, herbicides, insect remains, feces, rubber dust, and other poisons into the air for children, pedestrians, bicyclists, motorists (and their users) to breathe. The California Air Resources Board reported toxic arsenic, cadmium, chromium, nickel, and mercury in the street dust these machines blow up. The fine particles in the dust from leaf blowers can increase the number and severity of asthma attacks, cause or aggravate bronchitis or other lung disease, and may reduce the ability to fight infections. Your children breathe it, you breathe it, it gets into your home. The elderly, infirm, and those working at home suffer the noise and filth from leaf blowers nine months of the year in Newton.
Leaf blowers exhaust many times more carbon dioxide and carbon monoxide, a deadly poison, than do cars. Carbon dioxide from gasoline and other fossil fuels is the biggest cause of the climate change leading to extreme weather events that are killing people worldwide and threatening to make our planet uninhabitable.
I grew up and worked in the landscape/gardening business, have a degree in Ornamental Horticulture from the State University of New York, have lived in Newton for many years and know that leaf blowers are totally unnecessary for keeping your lawn and garden beautiful and healthy. But how many leaf blowers do you think are used in Newton on a typical spring, summer or fall day? So many that you can’t go anywhere in our city without hearing them, smelling them and breathing the emissions and dirt they blast into our air!
Raking is just as fast as leaf blowers and composted leaves are excellent mulch for your garden. Why pay to have them blown, vacuumed and hauled away and then pay again for chemical-laced shredded wood and noxious ammonia fertilizer for the leaf blowers to again blast into the air for you and all around to breathe?
Commercial landscape/gardeners and others in Newton who use leaf blowers not only blow poisons into the air, they blast dirt and leaves onto public sidewalks and into the street. I’ve seen gardeners drive off leaving it there. In the Fall, they blow leaves into huge piles, blocking sidewalks so children have to walk in the street, and use deafening leaf vacuums to blow them into trucks, choking traffic and spewing enormous clouds of filth into the air for everyone to breathe. I hate to say it, but they don’t even seem to care enough about their own workers to give them dust masks and hearing protectors!
Newton’s legal noise limit for leaf blowers and other gardening equipment is 65dB. Using the sound meter on my iPhone, I’ve often measured it at 75dB, 85dB and 100dB, loud enough to damage your and especially children’s hearing. Newton requires a special meter to enforce its noise law. But, even if the police had these meters, which they don’t, the users just turn their blowers off when they see the police coming.
Only a ban will work, as many communities across the country have found out. When we ban leaf blowers, the only difference will be that we will have healthier lives, quieter neighborhoods and better lawns and gardens.
(See: California Environmental Protection Agency, Air Resources Board, “A Report to the California Legislature on the Potential Health and environmental Impacts of Leaf Blowers”, Mobile Source Control Division, February 2000. http://www.arb.ca.gov/msprog/mailouts/msc0005/msc0005.pdf; http://www.noisefree.org/newsroom/noise-display.php?id=416 for fan rake and broom compared to leaf blower efficiency test.report; http://www.ccblincoln.com/CCBL/2OtherTowns.html. Updated 12/05/2013 Also see: Leaf Blower Ordinances; and (http://petitions.moveon.org/sign/better-health-better?r_by=8836093).
There is one error in my comment: Leaf blowers do not exhaust multiple times the amount of carbon dioxide as do cars. They emit approximately the same amount. However, they do exhaust multiple times more carbon monoxide, ozone-producing dioxygen and other health-hazardous and environmentally destructive pollutants. A widely-referenced test by Edmunds found: “a Ryobi 4-stroke leaf blower kicked out almost seven times more oxides of nitrogen (NOx) and 13.5 times more carbon monoxide (CO) than (a Ford) Raptor, which InsideLine.com once dubbed “the ultimate Michigan mudslinger.” An Echo 2-stroke leaf blower performed even worse, generating 23 times CO and nearly 300 times more non-methane hydrocarbons (NMHC) than the Raptor.
“The hydrocarbon emissions from a half-hour of yard work with the two-stroke leaf blower are about the same as a 3,900-mile drive from Texas to Alaska in a Raptor,” said Jason Kavanagh, Engineering Editor at Edmunds.com. “As ridiculous as it may sound, it is more ‘green’ to ditch your yard equipment and find a way to blow leaves using a Raptor.”