Video coverage of the leaf blower public meeting that occurred on Wednesday, June 10 is here.
Watch the proposed Newton leaf blower ban public meeting here
by Jessica Leff | Jun 11, 2015 | Newton | 8 comments
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Trying to make some time to hear this, or at least as much of it as I can. I found it interesting that at least two folks in the other thread who jumped off the fence of compromise and into a support of the ban as they listened at the meeting.
I feel the focus of discussions is misdirected.
We need to address neighborhood bullying. The most passionate of the proponents of this ban, seem to be victims of a neighbor who is being a bully.
No ordinance is going to stop this person (or people) from being a bully. I spoke with one such person and it is quite clear that he doesn’t care that he is bothering other people. “It’s a free world” means he gets to do whatever he wants. “I have a right to maintain my yard”.
No. American freedom means you can do what you want as long as it doesn’t infringe on others. It seems the last qualification gets lost on some people. We live in close proximity to each other. Sure, it means we need to get used to some noise, but it also means we need to be more sensitive to our neighbors.
Are we not compounding the issue of freedom infringement by allowing such bullying behavior to result in laws and restrictions that they’re just going to ignore any way?
We need help managing these bullies, not new laws managing the rest of us.
Whoever your bully is, he/she is bullying because he/she knows even with an ordinance there is no enforcement. enforcement is also key.
@greertanswinson Yes, in a perfect world there would be no jerks who put their own wants and needs over others. If these types of people didn’t exist there would be no need for laws, police, or courts. Unfortunately, I don’t think that any of us have the solution to bullies. The only way to get them to stop engaging in harmful behavior is to make sure that the behavior has negative consequences to them (because negative consequences to others is meaningless).
I agree with this statement. However, I disagree that passing an ordinance banning leaf blowers with achieve this, but it *will* manage to spread the negative consequences to more people who have not been guilty of bullying anyone.
Just look at how “successful” the sidewalk snow ordinance was. Our sidewalks were no better managed than they were before … and I would even say that in some places, they’d become worse while previously conscientious homeowners feverishly continued to obey the new law to no greater good. It was further exacerbated this past winter because there was no way to see over snow drifts of 5′ tall or higher, and therefore no way to find out how far along before one would hit shoveled snow … so MANY pedestrians took to the roadways DESPITE shoveled sidewalks.
I agreed that the sidewalks needed to be cleared of snow better. I disagreed (and still disagree) that the sidewalk snow ordinance was the best way to achieve this.
I also disagree that this leaf blower ban is going to provide any negative consequence to the neighborhood bullies. It will just spread negativity to more than just the current victims who live close to those bullies.
Greer, historic snowfalls aside, I don’t see how any meaningful conclusions can be drawn from the sidewalk ordinance. The board was successful in compromising on an ordinance with absolutely no teeth and no consequences whatsoever. In the years that have passed, city has done little to explore operational changes necessary for enforcement, invest in equipment to clear its own routes (until it was far too late) or provide better customer service in the form of a decent “snow resources” website, and the Alders haven’t demanded such. Hardly the board’s finest work, and certainly not a model we should follow for leaf blowers!
Please pass at least a seasonal ban. I hear leaf blowers every day now, they are used to blow dirt from customer’s sidewalks and driveways onto other people’s sidewalks, driveways and the streets. They are not cleaning anything. They are only moving dirt from one place to another. There is no need for this and it accomplishes nothing. For the record, I have a landscaper who rakes and I pay no more than my neighbors, I have asked.
I don’t understand the point of view that, because they aren’t perfect and some people will ignore or break them, we shouldn’t have laws to protect us. People who use leaf blowers harm other people. It’s obvious that we need a law to protect us from this that is more effective than the one we have now, which doesn’t work at all. No one expects perfection. There will always be bullies and lawbreakers. But it’s obvious we can do better than we are now doing to disuade them from harming others with their use of these machines, and to penalize them for so doing.