Next week, Brookline Town meeting members will be asked to vote on two proposals: one that would loosen the restrictions, the other making them even stricter, the Globe’s Ellen Ishkanian reports.
And here’s Jonathan Dame’s story from last week’s TAB about Newton’s proposed leaf blower ban.
The [Newton] seasonal bans would be in effect between May 15 and Sept. 15 and between Dec. 15 and March 1. The ordinance would allow only one leaf blower per 10,000 square feet of land.
Does anyone know how effective the seasonal ban in Brookline has been?
Brookline is now considering a total ban. The Newton and other landscapers who were working in Brookline before the summer ban was enacted there evidently are still doing fine in Brookline, though they still insist on wasting their time and annoying everybody with their baseless complaints and threats. And you don’t have to wake up every morning to the loud, rasping sound of dirt-blowing in Brookline, can sit on your porch in relative peace in the Summer now, and your children don’t have to breathe the filth or run inside to get away from the filth and noise, unlike in Newton.
It’s not clear to me why people choose to live in urban areas and expect life to be like living in the country. I wonder if leaf blowers are not allowed in towns like Nantucket or Edgartown where people buy homes so they may sit outside on their porch.
Janet, I’ve got no idea on other areas, but I think it does make sense for us to look to our neighboring towns to see how they’ve dealt with this.
After considering this issues, can anyone tell me why leaf blowers are needed except in the fall and early spring? A seasonal ban seems like a good approach.
I agree that seeing how things play out in Brookline will be instructive to what Newton should do (if anything), particularly what is workable for all involved.
I also agree that people that choose to live in urban areas should not automatically expect life to be like in the bucolic country. Proximity to the city means there will always be some concessions to noise, population density, and other trappings of the convenience we enjoy. But as to the first point, if there is a workable compromise it’s worth hearing about- and if Brookline proves a viable guinea pig, let’s see what we can learn from them.
Brookline may not be a good comparative model re the outright banning of blowers because generally Brookline is a much denser environment. Properties are generally smaller and manual raking of leaves is much more easily accomplished. It’s a lot easier for the majority of its citizenry to vote to ban leaf blowing when that majority is living in apartment buildings or on lots of 5000 sf.
Janet, please accept my apology, I really didn’t intend to mislead anybody. It’s just that I didn’t realize Brookline (and Cambridge, for that matter) are ‘country’. What was I thinking? And… I’ve actually lived in Newton and Cambridge for about 46 years! I should have realized, especially, since I drove a cab in Brookline and Cambridge back in the ’70s & early ’80s and knew them so well, that they were rural farmlands just beginning to develop into the bucolic village paradises they are today. Unlike Newton, which, I guess, by comparison is an urban wasteland where enjoying being out on our porches, which we pay for regardless, wouldn’t even occur to those of us who dare to live in such horribly congested conditions, heaven forbid! How could I be so blind, so stupid! Oh well… guess it’s age! Please forgive me.
What about Newton’s Prog+Serv committee taking a closer look at what is being done in Arlington MA as it pertains to leafblowers? Is Arlington tony enough for Newton to take this under consideration? 🙂
@Alex
You drove a cab when Newton was farmland? 1870’s’ and 1880’s? How old are you? 🙂
Touché (I’m too old! But not that old.)