Monday, June 10, 2013

Pressure cleaners and leaf blowers

The Leaf Blower situation in South Miami was never decided and as far as I know, and I am only bringing the subject up again because yesterday, a neighbor grabbed me to complain about another neighbor who yelled at her maintenance men the other day, for making too much noise with a pressure cleaner.

I told her I heard it too, it was 6:30 am, I thought it was a leaf blower, she said, no, it was a pressure cleaner. So does it really matter, 6:30 am? I remember tweeting about it because it bothered me that it was so early. I thought it was more like 7:30, but she told me it was 6:30.

Anyway, she told me that Coral Gables quietly (get it quietly), banned the noisy beasts. Not my neighbors, the leaf blowers. I remember when I was a kid we mowed the lawn and raked the leaves and we put them in bags and I guess the lawn mower did make noise, but the leaf picking up part didn't.

My friend Harry had an excellent point in a letter he sent to the Herald recently. The guys using the leaf blowers use ear plugs, should we all be given ear plugs for when they are on site? Here's his letter:

"If the leaf-blower decibel level is so high that landscapers use ear protectors, then the decibel level is too high for leaf blowers to be used in neighborhoods as well. Let landscapers rake up or vacuum leaves without making all that noise, polluting the air and filling our streets and sewers with debris.

All municipalities should study the effects of leaf blowers and do what is best for their communities.


Harry Emilio Gottlieb, Coconut Grove


I would add one more thing: 90% of the time they just blow the leaves into the street or into the neighbor's property. So that should stop, too.

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