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Downtown North Neighborhood Association (DTNNA)Leaf Blower Project |
Down Town_North_Neighborhood_Association> Leaf _Blower_Project (Blog entry)
Update: May 19, 2005 -- On June 13, 2005 the city council plans to eliminate the Leaf Blower ban.
On May 26, 2005 there will be a meeting discussing this situation: (flyer) , (Letter)
Patricia
Targ
Thursday, May 26, 7:30 PM
1010
Harriet Street, 94301
325-2657
The following are an Email from a resident who does not want this ban elimininatd and a previous one requesting that the ban be strengthened.
The resident communicated to the City Council on March 2, 2004 that they were not doing enough to eliminate leaf blowers in the city. I am opening this page to see if there is sufficient interest to form a sub group of DTNNA or PAN on this "situation".
From: pk@targ.com
Sent: May, 19, 2005
Dear Neighbors,
Please write, call or email City Council members by June 13, 2005. Urge them to enforce the leaf blower ban.
Please attend the City Council meeting on June 13th at 7:00 PM. On June 13, 2005, our Palo Alto City Council will decide whether to enforce or rescind the leaf blower ban. See muni code 9.10.060 (f)
In fairness, we have given the leaf blower industry 5 years to improve their technology and they have not done so. Now they seek to overturn the ban and seem to have persuaded Police Chief Johnson to support them.
The yard maintenance industry has fought every city that has tried to ban leaf blowers. In each case, they argue that bans are based on racism and create economic injustice. Like Big Tobacco, this industry provides inaccurate and blatantly false information to city managers, city councils and police departments.
The facts are;
- Debris blowers cause air and noise pollution which damage our health.
See American Lung Association State of the Air 2005 Report for Santa Clara County
- Yard maintenance is a highly lucrative business in Palo Alto. The average maintenance outfit with 20 yards a day rakes in $15,000 a month. Yet many of these outfits exploit minimum wage workers, who are the ones forced to use these awful machines to the detriment of their own health, as well as ours.
- No business has the right to contaminate our neighborhoods.
- Bans have worked successfully in many California cities -- Los Altos, Berkeley, Los Angeles, Beverly Hills and more.
- They have experienced no negative impact on city budget nor law enforcement. Yard maintenance businesses have not lost jobs or money!
A good research site on this subject is Zero Air Pollution Los Angeles:
Please help make Palo Alto be a clean and peaceful city.
More info: contact Patricia Targ Mailto:pk@targ.com
Also See: Original of EMail
To: < mll@usa.net >
Sent:
Wednesday, March 03, 2004 6:22 PM
Subject: leafblower
ban task force
I found a list of informative web sites through google with the search words 'leaf blower controversy'. The article about the woman who worked to have them banned in Los Altos, as well as Cat Woman, have experience stories that closely match my own experience and motivation for pursuing a ban. Attached is also something I presented to my homeowners' association when I proposed banning them, successfully, at our condo.
The items I put in my notes for the city council meeting are:
* Accumulative hours per day, week and month that many or us are forced to listen to hard to bear, ongoing leaf blower noise.
* The eventual hearing loss of the people who use the blowers.
* The air pollution and fumes, that the gardeners directly inhale.
* Soil erosion
* The dust and all put into the air that aggravates allergies and asthma.
* I would, if possible, like to work with the users of blowers rather than be at war with them (don't ask me how).
* Palo Alto used to be a pleasant, quiet place live when I grew up here. It's not now. Leaf blowers need to be banned to make it so again.
Thanks again for your help, and I look forward to hearing from you regarding your project posting for dtnna and pan.
Sincerely, ...
May 19, 2005
