Publication Date: Wednesday, June 08, 2005
Editorial: Proceed with ban on gas leaf blowers
Editorial: Proceed with ban on gas leaf blowers
(June 08, 2005) Too many promises, too few results mark 33-year history of leaf-blower debate in Palo Alto
When Palo Alto enacted a sound ordinance in 1972, leaf blower users were exempted temporarily, based on promises of quieter equipment within five years," former City Council member Alan Henderson wrote in a 1996 column in the Weekly.
Sound familiar? That's because that refrain has been played almost every decade since: Noise-angered residents appeal to city officials for relief -- either effective noise controls or a complete ban on noisy blowers -- and gardeners who claim their livelihoods are threatened show up to protest, some carrying children.
The debate flared up again in the late 1980s. But one resident, upset at the council's opting to give the gardeners and blower manufacturers more time, mounted an initiative petition effort to support a lower noise level that would effectively ban gas-powered blowers.
Yet Palo Alto voters rejected the initiative effort by a 60-40 split -- attributed mostly to the appeals of the gardeners, many of them Hispanic or other minorities.
"I'm saying bear with us," a gardener spokesman told the Weekly in 1987. "Manufacturers are working on this. But it's not going to happen overnight."
It hasn't happened in 18 years, either.
Los Altos successfully banned blowers in 1991, and in the late 1990s the ban-the-blowers debate resurfaced in both Palo Alto and Menlo Park. Menlo Park's City Council banned gas blowers, but 55 percent of voters rejected it after a hard-fought campaign that featured a pre-election barrage of material believed to be funded by the leaf-blower industry.
The Bay Area Gardeners' Association was formed to fight the proposed Menlo Park and Palo Alto bans.
The Menlo Park defeat made Palo Alto officials blower-ban shy. Palo Alto has tried to mitigate the noise problem -- often exacerbated by dust and debris -- by regulatory efforts, including setting noise levels and times of use, requiring removal of leaves and debris, certification and training of gardeners, and other steps.
But by early 1998 it was clear the city's noise-based ordinance was completely ineffective. For the following two years, then-Assistant Police Chief Lynne Johnson worked with gardeners to minimize the problem and seek compromise solutions.
"We realized that the bans aren't all they've been cracked up to be," she reported in February 1999 -- adding that a ban would also drive up the city's annual landscaping costs from about $500,700 to about $2 million, due to slower alternatives.
There had been some improvement in noise, she said. The staff proposed a two-year timetable to get to 62 decibels.
Then things fell apart. At a special council meeting at Rinconada Park, on a blustery day in May 1999, a test of a half-dozen gas and electric blowers literally blew away the credibility of ratings. A new, "quiet" gas-powered blower rated at 62 decibels produced 73, and one blower produced "an ear-splitting 81 decibels." Surprise, the electrics were quieter.
The council in November voted to ban gas-powered blowers, which the gardeners' association claimed was a betrayal of two years of effort. Rubbish, we commented, noting that most council members had long made their views known but hoped -- as did the Weekly -- for an effective compromise. The debate continued.
In 2002, the council granted a three-year reprieve from an outright ban on gas blowers -- hoping once again for a technological noise breakthrough.
The reprieve ends July 1, and it's clear the issue is as unresolved as ever.
Are blowers quieter? Yes, over the long haul. But they've stalled lately. Consumer Reports magazine rated 37 gas and electric models and reported in September 2003: "The latest blowers are no quieter overall than those we tested two years ago, despite dozens of blower-noise ordinances in and around Los Angeles, New York and other cities nationwide. While many of those rules apply only to gas-powered blowers, some electric models can be just as raucus," CR concluded. It said some newer electrics are as powerful as gasoline models and reasonably quiet, and some vacuum up leaves and debris as well.
After a full third of a century, the Weekly believes it's time to call the blower industry on its lack of responsiveness to public sensitivities and its tendency to hide behind often struggling minority gardeners, who are victims as well. We know an efficient, quiet blower or leaf-vacuum can be achieved.
Let the ban move forward July 1.
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