Cannot believe the number of landscaping trucks I’ve seen around. Two or three people driving around in the close confines of a truck cab is not safe.
Pay what you would have and live without the tidying. We’re in the middle of a catastrophic health crisis.
You have to be a sociopath to get landscaping right now.
Home renovations as well! Huge number of sites around the city with multiple workers in close quarters/ trucks/ sharing porta potties.
Amen! If you would have landscapers or housecleaners or other service folks come by, please pay them (if you can) but tell them not to come. We’re seeing the case load now due to actions a week or more ago, and our actions now will determine how bad this gets in a week or two. For the sake of all of us then, please let’s cut down on un-necessary contact now!
I think a lot of us, if we were living check to check, had a family to feed and were not in line for any potential stimulus would continue showing up to work as long as possible.
I didn’t fault the workers, though the risk they pose to family and friends is substantial. I fault the folks who hired them.
If you have the money to pay landscapers, you have the money to pay them not to work.
A lot of these people are already hurting because they depend on snow plowing for winter income and we had such a mild winter.
And no need to call people names. Many of us completely forget about lawn mowing until the guys show up for the first time in the spring; in this crazy time, I hadn’t even thought of them. And while I’m happy to pay them to not mow it for now, it’s hit-or-miss when I try to contact them.
Meredith,
Let me repeat. If you can afford landscaping at this time, you can afford to pay your landscaper to stay home and not put their workers (and the rest of us) at risk. I’m not suggesting not paying them.
And, if you didn’t think ahead to the risk that you’re creating, shame on you.
Many if not most of the landscaping and construction workers are probably living paycheck to paycheck and have no other choice if they want to put food on the table for their families. Same with most wage earners in the lower half of the economic system. They have no unions, retirement programs or quality health plans that most of us enjoy. This current crisis has brought home to me just how lucky and privileged we are to live in this great City. I’m missing many of the activities and personal contacts that are part of my weekly routine, but I’m enjoying the quiet solitude and the meaningful telephone conversations I’ve been having with friends I don’t talk to as often as I should.
I can’t remember when it’s felt as peaceful to be here since the great blizzard of 1978 and even earlier during the closing months of World War 2 when there weren’t many cars on the road and people did a lot more walking to the Highlands village center for groceries and other necessities. I can’t go to the Y, but I’m doing a lot more walking and exchanging friendly hellos with neighbors while respecting all the social distancing protocols we’ve been admonished to follow. And I’ll have plenty of time to do my own landscaping and yard cleanup over the next month or so. This is a tough time, but I wouldn’t want to be anyplace other than here.
I know quite a few people in Newton who are bunkering down inside and publicly telling others to do the same, but then are having landscapers and construction workers work on their homes. We’re putting these people in a danger we ourselves would not do, gaining off of the fact that they need to take on that danger to continue to put food on the table.
You can always send them a check for landscaping and skip landscaping for a week, I promise no one is going to be judging your lawn right now. Please weigh the potential harms you’re doing, and if you’d take on those harms yourself, before you put others in this scenarios.
Bob,
Let me repeat: if you can afford landscaping at this time, you can afford to pay your landscapers to stay home. The right thing has zero financial impact on the folks living check-to-check.
Please don’t confuse putting people at risk with solidarity for the working man. People should pay their landscape company to keep workers at home, which would have no financial impact.
This economic, educational, and social shutdown isn’t going to be sustainable for any more than a couple of weeks. Unfortunately that doesn’t correspond to the 20-month timeframe for developing a vaccine.
While the greatest economic burden of the past couple of weeks has been shouldered by hourly wage earners, six-figure-salaried knowledge-economy workers have, by comparison, viewed this as a quaint lifestyle adjustment or even a cool adventure, and haven’t been traumatized by it.
The tipping point will come when the knowledge workers’ telecommuting experiment turns into inevitable layoffs and/or company bankruptcies among the Wall Street, Big Pharma, and FAANG set – at that point, rest assured that the chattering classes will have a sudden epiphany that this solution is more harmful than the disease, and we simply won’t be able to keep doing this for months on end.
@Sean – I SAID I’LL PAY THEM. But when the grass is still brown, I don’t expect landscapers to show up. I’m sure that it slipped the minds of a lot of us who are trying to keep up with our jobs from home, deal with high-risk family members, and don’t ever have major landscaping done.
Now that you’ve brought it up, I’ll try to contact my guys (who never respond to my attempts). But it’s nasty and uncalled for to call people sociopaths if they didn’t think of calling people they haven’t used for months to cancel them when their lawns are the last things on their minds.
It would be less obnoxious and more effective if instead of being gratuitously nasty and alienating people you said it nicely as a reminder to those who may not have thought of it because they haven’t seen anyone mowing yet.
I’m getting sick and tired of people being judgmental. The high and mighty act is not helpful in this time of crisis. Sean you could have expressed your sentiment in a toned down fashion. There was no need to go where you went with it. Meredith is expressing a valid point that she didn’t expect her landscapers to show up. We are only into the 2nd day of spring! I saw landscapers putting down mulch which isn’t supposed to get done until mid to late spring. This isn’t the homeowner necessarily requesting the landscapers to show up. They are likely looking for income after the slow winter. Their jobs such as spring clean ups are typically on an hourly basis not a flat rate and they just show up whenever not on a particular schedule.
Also I thought Bob had some valid points. I loved his comment about meaningful phone conversations.
@Sean. I guess I’ll have to plead guilty because I’ve never had a landscaper. It’s simply something I get a great deal of pleasure doing myself and I’ve been doing it off and on at my Dickerman Road home for at least 75 years. Just for the record; Joanne does have some wonderful cleaning folks come in every three weeks and she did pay them not to show. And the leader told Joanne that we’re the kindest and most generous people they do work for.
And Sean , I don’t really care if you or anyone else approves of what I do or what I say. I have pretty strong political opinions on many issues, but I don’t judge people by whether I agree with them or not. And I’ve lived long enough to know that people on the other side of an issue just may be right, or at least partially right. You have some great goals and aspirations for this City, but your temperament and rigidity squander your effectiveness.
Sean, you highlight a really important point and make a recommendation that I hope people will follow. I’m sorry to say, though, that the way you present these ideas comes across as gratuitously obnoxious and thus less effective than these ideas deserve. (I could imagine talking with my neighbors to make these points, but I could not imagine forwarding your post to them.) I hope that you’ll heed the advice of Meredith, Bob, and Newton Highlands Mom.
Just wanted to note there are some subtleties. I called my irrigation company to pay forward my winter blowout service for this coming year. They said that they are still planning to do winter turn-on service, but only the outside part (and provide directions to the homeowner for the inside part). It’s a one person outside job, same as for almost all repairs.
I see this as a prudent way for the company to stay in business while providing a service. There are some theoretical risks, but no overt foolishness. So some companies are being careful.
If landscapers all drove their own vehicles to a site and took obvious precautions, I think most realistic risks could be avoided as well.
The key is that both employers and employees have to care enough to think about exposure and be trained enough to execute a plan without exceptions. I fear too many employees are powerless to make prudent judgements against their employer’s demands.
No corona-shaming 🙂 You catch more flies with honey.
Michael – I agree with you. I remember when everyone was all in on the Iraq war and those questioning it were viewed as pariah. I am not convinced that trashing our economy will stop the spread of the virus. I’m not sure it’s any more useful that bloodletting was for curing illness.
I”m also guessing a lot of those lawn care workers don’t have unemployment or health care benefits and live paycheck to paycheck. I hate leaf-blowers with an irrational passion, but right now I’ll live with them. I’d rather lawn care providers were getting a paycheck.
Is that really necessary Sean? I agree that we should be paying people not to perform services like housecleaning and landscaping but please don’t cast judgment on someone who isn’t on top of everything right now. Some of us are worried about sick kids who are overseas, unemployed kids who are everywhere, parents who live in assisted living, siblings and spouses who are high risk.
We are all doing our best right now. Please do your best too.
And some of us are working 16-18-20 hours a day to keep you safe.
I have kept my housecleaner working because unlike many, I have to work every day, 7 days a week. I don’t have time to do laundry or cook a meal let alone clean my house.
So for now, they come and clean and sanitize for me and I keep them employed.
Don’t judge until you’ve walked in my shoes….as I keep YOU safe all day, every day.
And here’s now the crux of it all. We live in difficult times, swim uncharted waters, face situations with no good choices. We do it collectively and individually.
How do we get everyone to take the threat to self, family, coworkers, and community seriously, based on good information, while at the same time acknowledging individual circumstances may mean imperfect choices?
We aren’t omniscient. We must have empathy. And we must do our part for others. I don’t know how to dictate that, or if that’s helpful at this stage. Or even exactly how to encourage it broadly. But we have to keep trying.
If the landscaper employs day-laborers and you pay the landscaper not to come, how will you make sure the landscaper doesn’t lay them off without paying them and just pocket the money?
Not from your town. Just stumbled across thread ,but I do work for a med sized landscape firm in Buffalo NY. We have shut down last week to allow crew to get in the unemployment line. But we are actively trying to get as many back to work ASAP. We are completely concerned about everyone’s health. We are considering one employee per truck per tool set. Trucks can stay with employee overnight No contact w customers. Jobs would have to be simple and may drag out. Not ideal but we hope it would be safe and allow some people some income. We still need to navigate fueling ,bathroom breaks, lunches etc. if it adds to the problem we will not do it
It is posts like these that remind us to be thankful that Sean was denied public office.
I’m a longtime customer of GreenHow lawn care and pest control in Auburndale specifically because of their longstanding commitment to safety for the customer, employees, and the environment. When you run a principled company, your standards are your guide whether you’re handling toxins, dead animals, or (potentially) human disease.
They are a great role model for companies continuing to serve during this difficult time. Every such company should have a statement like this one:
https://greenhow.com/what-are-we-doing-to-protect-team-members-and-customers-from-coronavirus/
Postscript. The good news is that yard waste pickup started this week and I was able to get three trash cans and 22 giant bags out to the curb before the truck arrived. And signs of spring everywhere. Snowdrops in full bloom and Crocuses, hyacinths and bluebells ready to pop. Even tulips and alum are above the surface and there are already green shoots on the peony bushes I cut back last autumn. Surprised at how few limbs and branches came down during the winter. It’s just nice to know that some good things remain constant regardless of the turmoil swirling around us.
Interesting that folks are bent out of shape about landscapers, and yet Marks Development is full steam ahead with Washington Street
Did I read that right? That I would be a “sociopath ” if my landscaper came to my house. I don’t know who Sean Roche is- and I’m glad- but he should take a deep breathe and stop insulting people. Why is he able to post here? There must be many clearer headed people who can post less corrosively? In regards to my landscaper- I called him and we talked for quite a while – his men desperately need/want the work , returning to some steady income. His crew would arrive in separate vehicles, do the job email me an invoice and hopefully go on to another job. It’s a discussion between me and the landscaper ( always keeping the community and those involved protected) – And by the way, I did offer to just pay him without the service, as we are doing for our cleaning help, but his response was , “If you pay me we will come and safely do the yard. ” Please stop with the ridiculous , confrontational language!
Huntington CALM
March 25 at 4:08 PM ·
“Crews travel and work in close proximity. Equipment is not sterilized from house to house and the potential for a worker who is a carrier to infect entire neighborhoods and communities is unacceptable. ”
https://evanstonroundtable.com/…/What-s-Wrong-…/-3/225/17705
@Alex – feel free not to use landscaping services ( Is the the link you provided from the anti-leaf blower group? ) For a more relevant source, you should read the statement from The Massachusetts Association of Landscape Professionals (MLP ) . Look it up. Bottom line- you can chose not to use a landscaper and I promise I won’t call you a sociopath. My complaint is with the tone of this post- its rude and patronizing.
Sorry, but the link in the last comment doesn’t seem to work This is the link to the Huntington CALM’ s Facebook page:
https://www.facebook.com/huntingtoncalm/
Also, I grew up in the landscape/gardening business, have an associate degree in ornamental horticulture with a landscape major, and had my own landscape/gardening business for a while. This was all very many years (decades) ago,, but, still, I find it very hard to imagine how a landscape/gardening crew can maintain ‘social distancing’ and still get the job done. The crews do “desperately need the work”, and i wish i had a solution to this problem, other than to hope we all do everything we can to get rid of COVID-19 as soon as possible..
Getting all in a dither about landscaping when the construction projects are continuing here in Newton, unabated is rather interesting. I happened to go by the job at Walnut and Washington Street – workers at least were wearing hard hats but they weren’t engaged in social distancing. Nor do I think they can when they need to pass equipment and materials to each other. But, the Governor’s order exempted construction including a lot of related fields (plumbing, electric) from his order closing non-essential businesses. And, while the Mayors of Boston, Cambridge and Somerville have ordered construction halted, the Governor’s legal counsel issued a letter that the Governor’s order supersedes the local shut downs.
And yes, the work of exterior home renovation contractors falls within the designation of essential workers according to the Governor’s office. And, the City of Newton is still permitting their inspectors to conduct inspections though they have conditions in place to try to protect the inspectors. I’m told that those construction folks don’t get paid if they don’t work. It’s one thing to pay your landscaper for not performing for a few weeks. It’s quite another altogether when a homeowner has tens of thousands of dollars on the line for a renovation project and the contractor wants to move forward with the job as an “essential” worker. What is a homeowner to do then? Default under the contract? Hope the contractor doesn’t go into bankruptcy? Work with the contractor to make sure that their employees wear masks and engage in social distancing? Get labeled a “sociopath”?
@Lisap “But, the Governor’s order exempted construction including a lot of related fields (plumbing, electric) from his order closing non-essential businesses.”
The Governor also exempted landscapers.
@Claire-
Fair point. Thank you for pointing that out.