4 ms·

I bike to work. Leaf blowers almost kill me every time. Here in dusty Southern California I can spot a leaf blower half a mile away by the cloud of brown dust b

I bike to work. Leaf blowers almost kill me every time. Here in dusty Southern California I can spot a leaf blower half a mile away by the cloud of brown dust being picked up. While biking through it I hold my breath and squint my eyes – hoping for the best. It's a nightmare. I'm convinced that these leaf blowers cause half of the particle pollution here in LA. One day, the leaf blowers blow the dust into the street towards the other neighbor, only so that the next day the other neighbor blows the same dust back to the other side again. This is a great business for the gardeners, they are paid for pushing the same dust around the block ad infinitum. The second reason they are a nightmare for the environment is what they cause of water consumption. Yes, you read that right. The same dust pushed around lands onto the cars parked on the street, causing them to need much more frequent trip to the car wash than they otherwise would. It has a a massive impact. California can not claim to care about the environment before they ban leaf blowers.

ravenstine 8y ago
I don't want to ban leaf blowers, but I want to ban leaf blowers. Maybe it's different elsewhere, but in California it seems our obsession with landscaping is pretty out of hand. It's normal for people in SoCal to hire workers who use multiple leaf blowers at once, and just walking by them is unpleasant to almost all the senses; the exhaust smells, the dust is dusty, they're loud as, and totally distracting from the scenery we should be enjoying. Property values must be maximized, thus all hedges must be cut to 90 degree angles with no rogue twigs or leaves. Let's not even get started on lawnmowing. Oh god, the noise! One of the reasons I found it hard to consistently work from home was the fact that gardeners are basically present blowing leaves somewhere nearby every day. I could never escape them... I'd decide to take a break from work and shoot some hoops at the park down the road, only for there to be more gardeners there blowing leaves and mowing lawns. Are a few leaves or grass trimmings here and there really so offensive to people? It's nature, and after a few days the wind or foot traffic will kick that stuff to the side. If the leaves must be blown, can the landscaping be at least limited to one day of the week so the other 7 days can be free of extra noise and dust? If only we spent as much money collectively on the homeless problem and picking up actual trash as we do on the sisyphean task of blowing leaves.

ravenstine 8y ago

I don't want to ban leaf blowers, but I want to ban leaf blowers. Maybe it's different elsewhere, but in California it seems our obsession with landscaping is pretty out of hand. It's normal for people in SoCal to hire workers who use multiple leaf blowers at once, and just walking by them is unpleasant to almost all the senses; the exhaust smells, the dust is dusty, they're loud as, and totally distracting from the scenery we should be enjoying. Property values must be maximized, thus all hedges must be cut to 90 degree angles with no rogue twigs or leaves. Let's not even get started on lawnmowing. Oh god, the noise! One of the reasons I found it hard to consistently work from home was the fact that gardeners are basically present blowing leaves somewhere nearby every day. I could never escape them... I'd decide to take a break from work and shoot some hoops at the park down the road, only for there to be more gardeners there blowing leaves and mowing lawns. Are a few leaves or grass trimmings here and there really so offensive to people? It's nature, and after a few days the wind or foot traffic will kick that stuff to the side. If the leaves must be blown, can the landscaping be at least limited to one day of the week so the other 7 days can be free of extra noise and dust? If only we spent as much money collectively on the homeless problem and picking up actual trash as we do on the sisyphean task of blowing leaves.