Some years ago Quiet Communities was contacted by Quiet Clean DC, a group trying to pass a law banning gas-powered leaf blowers in the nation's capital. Members of The Quiet Coalition, including Jamie Banks from Quiet Communities and me, gave testimony or submitted statements in support of the proposed legislation.
It passed the City Council and, after the required waiting period for congressional action (because laws passed by the City Council in Washington, D.C. require congressional assent), it recently became law.
Congratulations to Quiet Clean DC on this important victory. If our nation's capital can become a cleaner and quieter city, your city can do so, too.
You are not alone. Linda Robertson, The Miami Herald, writes about the scourge that is gas-powered leaf blowers. Robertson interviews south Miami resident Vicki Richards, a violinist and "connoisseur of sound" who is tormented by them. Richards laments,"You can't play over it and you can't play with it. I used to have house concerts, but nobody wants to hear 'String Quartet with Leaf Blower.'" Indeed.
Maybe it's the oscillating pitch of the snarl or the persistence of the whine. Maybe it's the sheer volume that puts [Richards] over the edge. Leaf blowers. Can they even be said to produce sound? Or merely an abomination of sound?
Robertson explains that leaf blowers were meant to be a labor-saving device, but now have turned into the thing that many people hate–but not the landscaping company owners who fight efforts to ban the gas-powered models. No, they claim that costs would escalate and their livelihoods would be adversely affected if gas-powered leaf blowers were banned, in whole or in part. There is no evidence that this is the case, however. In fact, according to Quiet Communities, there are more than 100 landscape companies now operating with electric equipment and manual tools at prices that are competitive. Just recently, BrightView, the largest landscape company in the U.S. purchased 200 commercial grade electric mowers, citing the environmental and health benefits. It may only be a matter of time before electric is the new norm for both mowers and handheld equipment.
But no worries, reason prevails: Fidget spinners banned from schools for making too much noise. For the uninitiated, a fidget spinner is a "palm-sized spinner containing ball bearings which can be flicked and spun around." And why do they exist (other than to torment us)? Actually, they were designed to help students with ADHD and autism and it's thought that they help with concentration, but they became "a fad after YouTube bloggers gathered millions of views by performing tricks with them." So students who were playing with fidget spinners for fun and not to help them concentrate were interfering with students trying to concentrate. While the linked story was about a ban at a UK school, you'll be glad to know that fidget spinners are also banned in 32% of the largest high schools in the U.S. So far.