To the Editor;
To the surprise of virtually no one apparently we have noted a return to public use of gas powered leaf blowers in Lafayette despite the city’s much publicized ban.
Months after the ban we were surprised and yes angered to see a return of backpack blowers in use again, apparently by workers employed by mow and blow companies who are either unaware of laws regarding hours of use or who feel safe enough to ignore them.
We expected a normal period of adjustment after the ban but we’re beginning to think this is a deliberate decision by neighbors and companies choosing to violate the ban and the city refusing to enforce it. If that is the case then why take the time to draft and pass an ordinance restricting use of gas powered equipment in the first place? Because going through all that trouble only to let landscape companies backslide and do as they wish makes no sense to us at all.
Sincerely,
Terri Reyes/Lafayette
Messing with the hardest working people so u can read your book in peace. Do you have any idea how much time it takes to rake a yard by hand. Obviously not.
I sweep or rake our yard most every weekend and it doesn’t take very long, doesn’t wake anyone up and doesn’t send noxious fumes into the air. I don’t know why this is so hard for people to understand.
Yo, Messing, I do. I am experienced.
You’ve got people OPENLY violating a city law and WE’RE messing with THEM. The shark has truly been jumped.
I always thought the mayor or police chief called the shots in the city but apparently it’s a guy with a leaf blower strapped on his back.
Years ago we never had leaf blowers so we all had to get out and rake the leafs … but we survived! When I was a kid my dad made us get out and do the yards. So what happened to society? Are we now lazy or maybe greedy?
Thank you, Terri! I’ve heard a few gas blowers lately, and politely mentioned the law to the head of a blowing team near my house. Got a plausible sob story about how batteries don’t last long enough. Ok, so buy a loooong electric cord!
Thanks for the encouragement, all commenters. Let’s keep politely confronting them.
(I have no idea if this was a plot, but my trust in city staffers is zero.)
In reality, people violate laws every day. Every time you go one mile over the speed limit. Or don’t come to a complete stop at a stop sign. Leaf blowers? Get over it. I never expected people (especially gardeners) to stop using them. Are you willing to pay your gardeners more?
We inherited our gardeners. We fired them when they refused to stop using their blowers at 7 a.m. They were really surprised but it saved us a lot of money and now we just do it ourselves.
“In reality, people violate laws every day.”
So that makes it ok?
I had to tell my landscaping guy to stop using his gas leaf blower, and even offered to give him a one time payment to offset the cost to switch to electric or battery. No one is asking them to do it by rake. There are plenty of non gas options, and corded ones are equally as powerful and no more expensive. Higher voltage battery ones are more expensive but also equally as powerful.
I do think we’re in a transition period, but it might start requiring warnings. By the way, the law as written has the property owner paying any fines – not the gardener.
No ban will work without enforcement. Full stop.
I’m imagining all of the commenters in this thread spouting “but it’s the law, and we follow the laws!!” prancing to the polls in two weeks to vote for politicians who openly eschew enforcement of existing laws in the Bay Area and the southern border.
Make sure when your gardener is breaking his back raking your lawn he doesn’t knock down your Harris sign! Lmao.