Yes on Menlo Measure E

Opponents of the ban on gas-powered leafblowers adopted in April by the Menlo Park City Council have qualified a referendum asking for voters to approve or reject the council's actions. A "yes" vote on Measure E will uphold the ban; a "no" vote will throw out the ordinance.

As we have previously editorialized, we have reluctantly concluded that banning leafblowers is the only strategy that will effectively address the noise and dust they unreasonably impose on neighbors, not to mention the many other negative impacts to gardens and to the health of gardeners.

Menlo Park is not blazing any trails with this ordinance. Some 20 other cities in California, including Los Altos, Mill Valley, Santa Barbara and Claremont, have enacted either total bans on leafblowers or partial bans of gasoline-powered blowers. In spite of all the alarming statements made by the ban's opponents about how it would hurt gardeners economically and cause the costs of gardening to soar, they have not offered a single harmful example from any of the communities with actual experience.

We don't like the idea of government regulating just one of the many commonly available and noisy pieces of gardening machinery. And the plea for compromise heard from the opponents of Measure E is seductive.

But so-called compromise regulations, such as setting decibel limits or time restrictions, have not been successful in any community where they have been tried. Police say noise limits are impossible to enforce since the noise is so easily controlled or stopped once police arrive.

In the end, we have concluded that the use of leafblowers unreasonably asks neighbors and the community at large to accept the machines' negative impacts for the benefit of those who use them. Whenever possible, communities should avoid such unfairness.

Since some models of electric leafblowers are as loud and annoying as their gas-powered counterparts, Menlo Park is already pursuing a compromise of sorts. The key to success, however, will not be in converting gardeners to electric blowers but in making gardeners and their customers alike realize that /f2/any/f1/ kind of blower harms gardens, gardeners and neighbor relations.