4 ms·
Leaf blowers are the worst. Several cities in CA have banned them. I don't know why more haven't followed suit. There's a myth that groundskeeping is more cost
by sicromoft 4y ago
Leaf blowers are the worst. Several cities in CA have banned them. I don't know why more haven't followed suit.
There's a myth that groundskeeping is more costly without them, but the city of LA reported that costs didn't significantly increase after banning them.[1]
[1] https://www.dailybreeze.com/2018/08/21/redondo-beach-bans-leaf-blowers-spreads-word-to-homeowners-and-gardeners/ https://www.dailybreeze.com/2018/08/21/redondo-beach-bans-le...
- mechanical_bear 4y agoI’m in Folsom, Ca. I wish they were banned here.
- grvdrm 4y agoI live just north of NYC in suburbs and leaf blower bans are never enforced. Not worth the time of the town or the city to bother dealing with the rules they create. It stinks.
- moduspol 4y ago> There's a myth that groundskeeping is more costly without them A... myth? Have you ever used a rake, and a leaf blower? How about for many hours? If there's no change in costs when switching between the two, it's getting hidden or absorbed somewhere. It takes substantially less time and effort to use a leaf blower than a rake for the vast majority of tasks that call for either.
- Teever 4y agoMaybe you don't need to track down and collect every single leaf? Like it's okay if things have a slighty not perfectectly tended to appearance. There's beauty in chaos.
- moduspol 4y agoYep. That falls under costs being "hidden or absorbed somewhere." Arguably there could be even more beauty in not even raking them! That doesn't mean leaf blowers and rakes are comparably cost effective, though (as implied by the claim I replied to).
- willcipriano 4y agoLots of HOA's will be right up your ass if you don't take care of the leaves on the lawn. That's one of the reasons I won't buy anywhere that has one, but a leaf free lawn requirement with a leafblower ban seems punitive.
- throwaway0a5e 4y agoThe crowning jewel of the cognitive dissonance is that places where people who complain about noise live and places the HOA would be up your ass over petty stuff are mostly the same places.
- dimitrios1 4y agoPerhaps you have never experienced mold issues due to excessive fallen foliage then? Or a copperhead nesting in a pile and biting one of your children? These things happen frequently. Or perhaps your neighborhood has a nice tree canopy, but the excess foliage causes a safety concern to motorists and cyclists alike. There are good reasons to clear excessive leaves that don't involve only looks. In fact most of the times the city will provide a truck a few times a month that will vacuum the leaves from the road, provided you push them all to the curb. Not every suburb is this desolate, cookie-cutter hellscape like you see in places like Texas. Many of the historic neighborhoods, especially in the northeast, have real reasons to manage foliage. And if you think leaf blowers are bad, just remember, people just used to collect them into huge piles and just burn them (still do in very rural areas), or worse yet, just toss their bags of leaves into the trash can. Leaves and landfills are a bad combo. With yard waste collection, towns will compost them and turn them into compost or rich soil: https://www.nhpr.org/nh-news/2017-12-18/you-asked-we-answered-what-happened-to-all-those-leaves-i-raked-up-and-left-at-the-curb https://www.nhpr.org/nh-news/2017-12-18/you-asked-we-answere....
- neverartful 4y agoIndeed! Leaf blowers are a complete menace to any semblance of peace and quiet.