I've spent some time watching people use the blowers, and it always looked like lots of leaves got blown into areas where they then became someone else's problem. Is it possible to use those things with any precision? Maybe, but I haven't seen any evidence of it.
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Our living spaces are our sanctuaries. Some of us live or work at home; some of us are sick and dying in our beds. The leaf-blower sound finds us all even if our windows and doors are carefully shut. For those of us who have babies that start screaming when the noise starts, even when the windows and doors are closed, that is surely an indicator that noise is too loud.
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What surprises and concerns me about leaf blowers is how they're being used year round. No longer are leaf blowers confined to autumn, but you hear them even in the middle of winter.
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For the sake of your neighbors please don't use them. Whenever you use a leaf blower, it's guaranteed that you're disturbing multiple neighbors.
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You can group me with the folks who do not like the disturbance leaf blowers create (we listened to them, not an exaggeration here, for around 12 hours this Saturday and Sunday) and also rake their own leaves.
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As for the remark that one list member made that people who are bothered by leaf blowers need to soundproof their homes, that's neither affordable nor practical for most homes. As somebody else pointed out, the preamble to DC's noise law says, "It is the declared public policy of the District that every person is entitled to ambient noise levels that are not detrimental to life, health, and enjoyment of his or her property."
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The use of leaf blowing machines to include clearing remnants of lawn clippings from sidewalks and walkways is the real issue, is it not? The only time they save major labor is in the fall, when there are large quantities of fallen leaves to be moved.
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I've had it with these loud leaf blowers. Neighbors aren't getting the message that many of us hate them. If a blower is too loud to use without ear protection, then it's too loud to be used.
Many people focus on the loudness of the noise. The decibel level, once it reaches the inside of your house from next door, is actually quite low. It is this incesssant nature of the sound that is the real problem, and the lack of control over it. There is something about the whine that is particularly grating. Even at low volume. And you can't escape it.
ReplyDeleteWhat is really ridiculous though, is that many people, particularly employees of landscape companies, merely blow the debris off their property and on to the next. They don't collect it, they don't bag it -- they just move it. Into the street, into gutters, onto the property next door.
And they do it all-year long now, leaves or no leaves. Now they are being used to blow dirt.
God help us.
are the good people of our troubled times too lay to use a rake?
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