The noise over blowers

Flower & Garden Magazine, August-Sept, 1996 by Kay M. Olson

You've no doubt heard the news that the Los Angeles city council recently passed a law prohibiting the operation of gas-powered leaf blowers in residential areas. As expected during a hotly contested legislative debate in the city of stars, a couple of celebrities showed up to lend their name fame to the cause. Peter Graves and Meredith Baxter said (respectively), "Leaf blowers are bad," and "It flies in the face of all rational thinking to continue using blowers."

I know I'm nowhere near the celebrity status of these television stars (even though I have occasionally acted in a few community theater productions) but I have some noise to make over this blower issue, too, and I'm not going to be quiet about it any longer.

Gas-powered blowers being good or bad is not really the question. Does it make sense to add another law to the law-abiding citizens obey? I have a theory that we, as a society, keep coming up with new rules to govern the majority of citizens who are already willing to obey. Meanwhile, the few really bad criminals in our midst keep committing serious crimes because the police are occupied with enforcing silly nuisance regulations.

If it is right to ban power blowers because they are bad -- what about guns? If it is right to ban power blowers because they are noisy -- what about automobiles, rock concerts, and lawn mowers?

The Los Angeles ordinance bans only gasoline-powered blowers (those worn on an operator's back) from being used within 500 feet of residential property. Electric-powered blowers with long extension cords can still be used as can the larger, gas-powered two-wheeled units favored by commercial lawn maintenance workers. Maybe LAPD officers should start carrying a tape measure with their crime-fighting gear; a power blower criminal may be defined by inches.

I'm not denying that a power blower being operated under my bedroom window early on a Saturday morning isn't annoying -- but so is the neighbor's kid having a backyard party late at night. In fact, the neighbor's kid might be bad, but you can't exactly pass a law coming within 500 feet of your house.

Powered lawn and garden equipment is, indeed, noisy and should be used courteously and responsibly. But we should be able to deal with nuisances without always passing yet another law.

Power blower manufacturers have been, and continue to be, involved in reducing the noise levels of all power blowers. Yes, there is still loud equipment out there and some annoying people misusing it. But this isn't grade school -- we shouldn't all be punished just because a few people make noise.