FMCDH
Posted on 03/15/2005 8:28:30 AM PST by wallcrawlr
When he began his quest for a quieter, cleaner city months ago, little did Stephen Rueff know he'd run into throngs of people who believe they have a right to bear leaf blowers.
But oh, they're out there, legions who think that the roar of the leaf blower is the sound of liberty.
"It's pretty interesting," Rueff said. "There are people who don't accept the notion of a greater good. They don't see that what happens on their own property impacts their neighbor."
He's still on his quest, saying the more people learn about leaf blowers, the less they defend them.
At the urging of two supportive City Council members, Rueff is accepting compromise.
At a public meeting at 9:30 a.m. Saturday at Lyndale Farmstead Neighborhood Center at 3900 Bryant Av. S., a proposal to ban only those leaf blowers with fuel combustion engines will be discussed. Council Members Dean Zimmermann and Dan Niziolek will be there and plan to present a proposal to the full council by the end of the month.
This mini-ban isn't what Rueff and others had hoped for. It will have little impact on most Minneapolis residents because the vast majority of leaf blowers now sold are electric. Although those machines are quieter than the old two-cycle engine machines, they still foul the air by blowing around particulates.
The council's cautious attitude about a leaf blower ban can be seen in the actions of Council Member Gary Schiff. At one point, he was going to tie his effort to ban trucks from idling in residential areas between 10 p.m. and 6 a.m. with the leaf blower ban.
A few weeks ago, the council unanimously approved the ordinance that stops truckers from the early morning idling that was disruptive to the serenity of so many.
(Excerpt) Read more at startribune.com ...
FMCDH
When leaf blowers are outlawed, only outlaws will have leaf blowers.
I wonder if I can still run my brush chipper at 7:00 am Saturday morning?
ROFL!!!!!!!!!!
Burn leaves!
.JPG)
Heh...I like that. But dude that picture is HUGH!
cut down the trees, lol
That's a novel idea!!!!!!!!
I have a gas leaf blower, it is the best thing since sliced bread. I guess this joker would not like my gas chain saw, gas hedge trimmer, gas edger, gas mower, gas weedeater, or my gas pressure washer. See a patter here.
The first problem is Mr. Rueff's -- can't he simply tolerate a bit of noise and dust now and again?
The second, and bigger, problem, is those whose actions do in fact impinge on others: is it too much to expect that folks avoid making excessive noise at inappropriate times?
There's no real reason why this should be a legal matter, except that there are folks whose selfishness prevents them from being good neighbors.
Seems to me a lot of our problems could be solved by a bit of neighborliness....
You have gas????????
Lazy a$$ people, USE A RAKE!
What a weenie. I got your particulates (grab). Dude, I live on the prairie where the wind comes whipping down the plains. I cannot live without my daily dose of particulates.
I must admit to never seeing the point of a leaf blower. You blow them off, they blow back on. I prefer the rake and BAG method SO THEY DON'T come back!!! However, aren't lawn mowers just as loud as leaf blowers??
Leaf Blowers . man this guy hasnt got much to cry about does he? I lovev it when people complain about things like this. City folks move in and complain about cow crap or horse dung stinking. Move into a neighborhood where a guy has been raising pigs for 40 years and they dont like the stink. First its leaf blowers ,then lawn mowers, then they wont like a neighbor who farts on his own property. Courtesy is waiting till 9am before you crank the leaf blower up.
First you gotta fire up the chainsaw at 6 AM to cut down the brush to feed into the chipper.
My bad, sorry for the hugh pic.
Yup. They're pretty much one and the same thing, when you get right down to it. "The greater good" is another way of saying "civil society," which is impossible without common courtesy. (Courtesy, BTW, means a lot more than simply opening the door for others...)
And what particles would that be?Dust and leaves,which he now claims "foul the air"?We need to ban dust!We need to ban leaves!Run for your lives,the leaves are coming!
On another note,we use leaf blowers for my landscaping business.Quick,easy,and it does the job.Outlaw that and either no more cleanup after mowing or pay more for the time it takes to sweep off the clippings and leaves.
"Please Hire Me.....I Work Cheap"
"the notion of a greater good"
Shades of Hitlery -- (paraphrase) "I am going to take things away from you for the common good."
Can you say communism? I know that you can.
And, by the way, I am the arbiter of the Greater Good. My opinion is what counts. Your opinion that leaf blowers are a useful tool, is a position which is beneath contemt. 'Cause I said so.
Don't take this the wrong way, but I assume since you're in Florida you speak from a lack of knowledge on just how many flippin' leaves we're dealing with.
In the fall, I can fill up 20 hefty bags with leaves once a week for about two months. Most of the time, I use a yard vac, but that won't get them all.
I do not, however, run either before 8-9 a.m.
That's okay, I'll just keep talkin' until I get it off my ping page.
Agreed. I still do my own lawn (using a broom and a rake to gather debris), but most of my neighbors have hired help who seem to like to blow their customers' leaves, dirt and trash into the other neighbors' properties. This royally pisses me off, and the noise doesn't help, either.
Cut down the trees...............
Just kidding.
What few we have get chewed up and spit out by the tractor.
The worst thing I have to do now is rake up some pine needles..
Then they go through the chipper.
The statement regarding 'a greater good' is just BS from the PC crowd.
WHAT THEY REALLY WANT? PERSONAL LAWS.
Laws designed to suit them personally, that is what this crap is all about. DEAR GOVT: Please make a law every time I find something I don't like.
MEMEMEMEMEMEMEMEMEMEMEMMEMEMEMEMEMEMEMEMEMEMEMEMMEMEMEMEMEMEME.
We've taken down about 8. And I've got my eye on about 8 more.
Problem is, there's no clear way to drop them, so they have to come down in sections. And that gets spendy.
If I had my druthers, I'd take 'em all out and start all over.
I still recall some FReeper calling them "Mexican Bagpipes"...
When I moved into my house twelve years ago in suburban NJ, you could see all the men in the neighborhood out in the yard at 9:55 AM on Saturday, looking at their watches and priming their lawnmowers. Then at 10:00 AM, we all pulled our starting handles as one. The next two hours were pure mechanical mayhem, and you couldn't tell if your neighbor's leafblower was noisy, because your lawnmower was making such a racket.
Now, most of the lawns are maintained by crews of workers who, shall we say, have no connection to the neighborhood. They will work any time of day or night, weekends, weekdays, or 6:00 on the morning Sunday. One of the foremen pitched me to work on my lawn. I told him I would consider it if he would guarantee to do my work between 10:00 AM and 2:00 PM on Saturday. He looked at me like I had two heads... (sigh)
I would always cut my neighbor a break if he wanted to work off hours, but these work crews are just annoying.
Will this help?
Well, FWIW, I have my 15-year-old using the rake.
Almost...
LOL! I will definitely use that phrase with my buddy who owns a landscae business.
I don't understand the point of a lawn mower either. I mean, you mow the grass and it grows right back. Then there's raking leaves and bagging them. You rake up the leaves, more grow on the trees, they fall off, and you rake up more leaves. Why not cut down all the trees and pour rocks all over your yard, so you don't have to rake or mow?
(of course, I am only kidding. I love trees and grass.)
Couldn't agree more. My husband uses one of these horrible things, so it's an annual argument within the family. I give him a hard time. He uses this infernal thing and then goes to the gym to work out. I tell him I see a much cheaper way to accomplish the same thing. Sigh.
Well said
We're comtemplating putting in some fruit trees this year.
The property to the north of us is lined with a huge stand of hardwoods and pines, I get the advantage of the windbreak, but since the property line is a creek, I don't have the problem with leaves. Best of all worlds!
Florida native ericthecurdog: "Holy $%@& that's a lot of leaves!!"
They also make leaf suckers ya know. Now those make sense.
>>However, aren't lawn mowers just as loud as leaf blowers?
The leaf blowers around here are louder than Harleys with drag pipes. And the lawn care guys run them once a week every week of the year. I hate 'em, but I'd much rather move someplace where I can't see my neighbors than try to outlaw leaf blowers.
The only thing louder is the F16s that sometimes fly over head.
Always find it ironic how some people will work so hard to bag up and remove all their leaves, then turn around and spend money to apply nutrients to their yard.
Look, if I want to use my leaf blower to clean off my sidewalks and patio after I mow, it's nobody's business but my own. I don't get out and fire it up at 7 AM, so I ain't buggin' nobody.
So, if you're so worried about "Lazy a$$ people", come back and talk when you give all of your labor saving devices, such as your lawn mower, car, weedeater, clothes washer, dishwasher, indoor plumbing... You get the idea.
Once you've done that, come back and call me lazy.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.