The Willow Glen Resident

Letters

Gas-powered garden tools are too noisy and way overblown, even in San Jose

Fed up with traffic, I recently took a job which allows me to work from home. This also means one less car on our already air-polluted freeways. However, what I have come to realize is that this is far from ideal situation, in regard to the aural pollution that I have to put up with every day. I am referring, of course, to the proliferation of gas-powered tools used by landscape gardeners.

Only today, starting at 7:15 a.m., I have had to put up with lawn trimmers, followed by lawn mowers, followed by leaf-blowers. Then they started trimming the trees with chainsaws, again followed by leaf-blowers. Finally, they finished by trimming the hedges and ground covering, again followed by leaf-blowers. Of all these tools, the leaf-blowers emit the loudest, most nerve-wrenching sounds. I eventually left my house and took my work to a coffeeshop, where I could sit outside with my dog--only to be subjected to another leaf-blower in the supermarket parking lot.

Because of the ease of the blowers, workmen tend to overuse them, most of the time just moving around clouds of dust. I even witnessed one workman use a blower to blow a single leaf from one side of the road to the other. If they had to use brooms, perhaps they might not be so liberal in their use and could therefore save money!

This is a problem where I live, Sunnyvale, and I know it's a problem in other nearby areas, including San Jose. I read recently that Menlo Park is considering banning leaf-blowers, thereby joining Los Altos, Palo Alto and Portola Valley, where I understand they are already banned. I therefore have to ask if Sunnyvale or any other South Bay communities are contemplating this step. If not, why not?

I have heard all the arguments for leaf-blowers, but they don't outweigh the benefits regarding the public health (or my mental health ), so don't bother to try and convince me otherwise.

Steve Trigwell
Sunnyvale

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