The noise from leaf blowers is what's most noticeable but I believe the more significant and long lasting damage is the clouds of dust and leaf mould that are blown into the air almost every time a blower is used. Gas or electric.

Many people in our town are concerned about vehicle emissions, cell tower radiation and other regularly occurring threats to health. But blowers generate huge amounts of dust and mold hundreds of times every day in Palo Alto. Any flat surface such as a parked car or outdoor table will bear evidence after just a few short days. Clouds are sometimes over 20 feet high in my neighborhood. On windy days(we have a lot of them) a blower cloud will often carry dust and mold hundreds of feet away on neighbors homes, screens, windows, cars and trees. Nobody has calculated the annual costs per household in cleaning cars, screens and windows much less the more serious consequences to the health of children and adults.

I have a very good long term gardening service that comes weekly. They train their crews and impose high standards. Yet despite many conversations with the owner, if my crew thinks I am not home they will often dispense with the electric blower and rakes and bring out the gas blowers. And pay no attention to the size of the cloud they generate.

I think it's time to ban blowers.

I've spoken to a number of gardeners that I've seen using gas leaf blowers in our neighborhood. I remind them of the Palo Alto municipal ordinance, then I ask them why they prefer the gas-powered machines. The answer surprised me. It has nothing to do with the cost of an electric blower. Corded electric blowers are cheap - certainly much cheaper than the gas-powered leaf blower backpacks. Saving on gasoline (by using the resident's electricity) also has nothing to do with it. I considered handing out free loaner electric leaf blowers, but then I realized this wouldn't make any difference. TIME is the main issue. Gas blowers are more powerful, and the gardeners can finish sooner. Electric blowers might reduce by two or three the total number of jobs they can do per week. That's around $100 a week. It dwarfs other cost considerations and is comparable to the fine. Pay the gardeners a premium for using electric and they will be more than happy to do so.

Nothing is being enforced in this town. Leaf blowers, dogs off leash, smoking downtown and in parks, bicycles on the sidewalks in downtown, and the sit and lie ordinance. The quality of life here is getting worse everyday. The constant noise of construction, leaf blowers, airplane noise, and our neighborhood streets being used as cut throughs to Middlefield and Alma is loud and polluting.

I agree with @Mike. The preoccupation with leafless yards has become unhealthy. I wonder if there have been studies about the increase in allergies and asthma in kids, and what effect the dust and mold may contribute.

We also had our gardeners switch to rakes instead of any blowers at all, and everyone is happier. I wish our neighbors would do the same - we still get their dirt blown over the fence into our yard.

How about an ordinance that requires electric leaf vacuums - they suck up the leaves and dirt instead of blowing them. Web Link

I walked past a couple of gardeners recently who were raking, there was a large cloud of dust surrounding them, they were wearing masks.

I have seen the street sweeper creating a large cloud of dust (due to less water because of the drought possibly?).

We have a mulching mower. It does a reasonably good job of getting rid of leaves off the lawn.

A manicured lawn does not have to be leaf free. In fact, a leaf free lawn lasts a very short time before more leaves fall, or petals, or blossom, or pine needles, or whatever. In fact, it can look better when it has some of these.

Why bother?

I've never seen rakes create clouds of dust. Sure they weren't brooms? Otherwise, I agree with you completely.

We have three neighbors - all on a street behind our street - who have gardeners who use noisy blowers at length on Saturdays! They don't even use the same gardener, rather three different guys come at different times. It is awful. These are not original homeowners, from what I can tell, I have been here long enough to know that, it wasn't always like this, so it is coincidental, but an unpleasant development for nearby residents who wish to enjoy their homes and yards themselves on a Saturday.

We get gardeners 5 days a week, all with trucks and most with blowers, so I wish we could outlaw blowers on Saturdays.

Most yards here aren't large enough to really justify the "necessity" of extensive blower use. Its more like a habit to most of these gardeners.

It is also tiresome to return from getting one's car washed to then drive through a cloud of dust as a gardener blows a large cloud into the street, any street.

Residential and commercial construction also generates the same variety of dust and noise. Let us ban that as well.

rake it or
brush it or
leave it there

Residential and commercial construction have restrictions on noise and dust. Talking to the construction manager usually yields results. A few years ago residential construction next to my home involved soil compacting. It was summer and the workers were running a gas powered tamper on bone dry soil. They raised a column of dust over 30 feet high that was blowing onto my yard. I contacted the construction manager and in five minutes they wet the ground and ended the dust.

The city manager is not telling the truth. Patrol officers never issue citations to leaf blower offenders. Every single gardener on my street, neighboring streets and pretty much everywhere I go in town, is back to gas powered blowers. Even in the extremely unlikely event they would end up paying the $100 fine, about as likely as winning the California lottery, the fine is way too low to bother them. The only solution is to quadruple the fine, increase it for repeat offenders and slap it on the home owners. The city of Santa Monica has done just that(I'm not sure about the size of the fine down there), and presently there are practically no gas leaf blowers operating in Santa Monica.

How about the NEVERENDING loud, cacophonous roar of 6 days a week construction?????

Why do some people think that we can't make an effort to solve one problem with out simultaneously addressing every other problem on the planet? So construction noise is also unpleasant, so just live with every kind of excessive noise there is?

Odd arguments here.

Please look at how other cities have made enforcement effective - they shifted the fine away from the gardener to the owner of the property. It is silly and looks bad for a city like Palo Alto to be fining gardeners. Put the responsibility where it belongs, then actually enforce it.

This was a well-written article, covering all the angles. Thank you Palo Alto Weekly.

This was funny: "....today gardeners are about as likely to get in trouble for operating loud leaf blowers as for removing tags off mattresses or recording a baseball game without the express written consent of Major League Baseball."

Leaf blowers are health hazard.Not jut because of the excessive noise level but they blowing up dust mold rotten food excremens of rodents birds etc. creating risk for elderly and people who haveing Asthma.

The heat generated by the leaf blowers are also drying out the roots of the trees.

The gardeners starting sometimes early even before 7:00 AM with the devilish noise in residential areas.

The leaf blowers need to be banned.Some cities on SF Peninsula already did it.

The proposal for ban was couple of years ago on the City Council's agenda but was voted down- protecting the Gardener's business.

Question to the City Leaders :

What is more important to you to keep the Gardeners happy or to protect Palo Altans health and well being?

Leaf blowers in general and gas ones in particular create air pollution from their emissions as well as the dust, mold, pollen, etc that they blow around.
Also, by blowing off the surface of the yard, they destroy the topsoil and leave dry, hard ground.
The noise is also very disturbing to neighbors. Construction noise stops when the job is over; blowers go on forever.
What did we do before they were invented? Leaves were allowed to sit on the ground and decompose, and hard surfaces were raked and swept.
Yes, it takes longer. Ban all leaf blowers and the market will take care of the rising cost.

Kudos to the write and editor who took the time to research this issue and to write a comprehensive story.

Thanks - this is what good journalism should be.

It has recently come to my attention from a friend in Old PA that the city workers are using gas powered leaf blowers and other gas powered tools. Anyone know if this is true?

All of these annoyances. So annoying... First World Problems.

It is not enough we have police guarding empty crossings during the mornings rush hour when there are lots of clogged intersections which take forever to clear; we now need to send them after the leaf blowing profiteers who swindle people out of $20 a week to clean their yards because someone's sensibility has been offended.

@OMG OMG - we work hard and pay a lot of money to be entitled to first world problems. If I wanted to be worried about drive by shootings, I could live in a much cheaper house.

@ Elizabeth - IIRC the Palo Alto ban on gas powered leaf blowers applies to residential properties only.

@OMG I just wanted you to read the part of the story you missed before you commented:

Neither Rosenberg nor the Hutchingses believes the leaf-blower issue is the most critical problem in town, despite the irritating noise and air pollution. They acknowledge that the police department has priorities that take precedence over catching people in the act of blowing leaves. Burglars need to be caught; traffic accidents should be attended to.

But it frustrates them that the city ordinance is, essentially, being flagrantly ignored."

Seems quite balanced and reasonable, unless you're one of those easily offended on msg boards...such a first world problem. OMG, OMG.

What I find more offensive than the noise is the dust (obviously worse because of the drought) and when they blow the leaves from my neighbor's sidewalk over to mine!

We used to have a mow and blow service and the blowing just ruins your yard. In addition to removing leaves, it removes the top layer of top soil, a little each week. We are finally "recovering" from excessive blowing, and the soil is getting a lot healthier. Pull out your rakes people!

I always disliked leaf blowers because of the obvious noise and pollution. It wasn't until I retired and was spending more time at home during the day, that I realized that that leaf blower noise/dust is nearly non stop from 9am to 5pm. Now I really appreciate the anger that so many have. The steady whine of a dentist drill combined with the exhaust from 57 Chevy - what a miserable annoying device.
Nobel Peace prize (or at least $100k award) for the first Google, Stanford, or retired Engineer to come up with a silent, non polluting device. All you future retirees better take a stand or your quiet retirement is not going to happen.
Shame on the PA police for not enforcing this - I was hoping that PA was going to be a leader on this that other city's could point to. How about the fine going to the property owner who knowing allows a crime to be committed on their property.

"Nobel Peace prize (or at least $100k award) for the first Google, Stanford, or retired Engineer to come up with a silent, non polluting device."

It is called a rake.

And then the piles can be easily mulched ( using an electric mulcher) and used to enrich the soil from whence they came.

I think we should go back to the community officer and dedicated complaint hotline. When we had this, the officer asked for license plate # and name of company.
This worked really well as he did not need to witness the violation.

[Post removed.]

Just about every dog owner who walks his/her dog off leash will tell you when confronted, that since the gas blowers is ignored and not enforced, so should be the ordinance about leashed dog in public. I have been amused to notice that often, those who complain widely about off leash dogs allow their gardeners to use gas blowers. A neighbor of mine who is notorious for complaining about off leash dogs even lets his gardener, and his very noisy gas blower to work on holidays, which is against the law. The dog leash ordinance and gas blower ordinance are not enforced by the city, and this sends a signal that people can get away with breaking laws they don't like. Both need to be enforced, just like the ordinance regulating construction hours and days, another ordinance that's widely ignored.

@DIXIE - you are riding the coattails of generations of complainers before you. Would you be happy with a lead smelter next door? Dirt roads? E-coli in your water? We get to decide as a group of Palo Alto citizens what complaints deserve action. If you are happy on your deck, great, but you don't get to decide what problems others are allowed to fix.

Since I bike around town it is rare for me not to see several leaf blowers on any given trip. Since these people are working for the home owner the easiest way is to first ask the home owner to insist they use electric blowers or else they will get someone who will. That worked with both my neighbors. I rake my own leaves.

There are probably others but Stihl make a batter powered leaf blower which makes less noise than a rake. The downside: the battery only last 20 minutes at full speed (but it is very effective on driveways at very low speed) and it costs about $500. They are great for homeowners. Ban the problem not a tool that doesn't create the problem.

And blow the leaves into your flower bed.

we have never understood what a leaf blower actually accomplishes. our neighbor's leafblower blows all kinds of stuff into the street, and into our yard and garden area. then our leafblower comes along and blows all of the stuff on our property right back into the neighbor's yard. who wins? it is a constant weekly game of who can blow more stuff into their neigbhbors' yards. take the noise factor out of the equation. what is the purpose of a leaf blower in the first place. seems like a total waste of time, money, pollution, and purpose. that time by the leaf blower could be far better spent, pulling weeds or trimming bushes--that really is what a gardener should be doing--not blowing and irritating all the neighbors, cars parked in street, bikers and walkers.

what would happen if the home-owners simply told the leaf blowers--to use his time more wisely and with a purpose. there really is no purpose for the leaf blower in the first place.

btw, along the same lines, there would be no drug cartel or drug crimes, if we simply stopped using drugs. problem solved--cartels go bankrupt and have to find another line of work. it would save billions of dollars that we could better use to fix roads and infrastructure.

Electrical leaf vacuums. Web Link

Peter - rakes are not silent. I prefer the low murmur of an electric leaf blower over the nails-on-chalkboard scratching sound of a rake.

Leaf blowers are nothing next to the sounds of heavy construction equipment from houses being demolished and rebuilt all over Palo Alto. This city is a never ending work in progress. It seems like every house that gets sold, then goes through extensive down-to-the-studs remodeling, or gets knocked down and replaced. What is the priority in this city? Building and hammering away every day to create big, new, shiny houses, or peaceful neighborhoods where you can enjoy the gentle sounds of birds chirping and children playing?

I'm not at all surprised by this. I mean, the city doesn't appear to enforce traffic laws or watering restrictions in any meaningful way, so why should this be any different? The only type of enforcement we're likely to get from the city is that which will produce maximum revenue with minimum effort -- i.e., the residential parking permit program. I don't know what it will take to get the city's attention on these issues, but I'm guessing not an article or a comment in Palo Alto Online...

Yup, First World Problems here......sheesh!

"along the same lines, there would be no drug cartel or drug crimes, if we simply stopped using drugs. problem solved--"

Excellent point. And if we made it illegal for anyone to own anything but one jumpsuit--the same design as everyone elses, it there would be no thievery because there would be nothing to steal.

Hanna has it right: the PA police don't enforce dog lease laws nor do they investigate leaf blower noice complaints. After the 2008 recession, employee numbers with PA police have been returned to previous levels, yet no complaint investigation increase on above violations. If Palo Alto is not going to pursue these violations, why not just remove the statutes from the City's charter. I do think that laws that are on the books and not enforced are actually worse than no rules about them at all. The current situation encourages police disrespect and 'us vs them' feelings.

@Stanley - "first world problems" isn't an argument. We live in a very first world part of a first world country, so the problems we have tend to be first world. Unless you are sending 100% of your income over sustenance to africa to feed starving people, you probably spend most of your day working on first world problems (lawyer? engineer? artist? retired? professor?) as well.

It seems the only time I get a break from the near-constant airplane noise is when the neighbor's leaf blower drowns it out!

[Post removed.]

I have been baffled by the lack of enforcement of the leaf-blower ordinance for several years. I notice in your report that Lt. Zach Perron of PAPD says that a reason for non-enforcement of this law is that the police can't respond while the activity is in process. But these guys are all on a schedule, usually weekly. In my neighborhood when I am in Palo Alto, every day except Sunday predictably the leaf-blower operators arrive. I know exactly which property is getting gardened by their noise and the schedules, usually weekly, don't vary. One operator does four or five properties in a row on Clara moving in from Colorado over a period of 2 hours every Saturday morning. It would not take much waiting on the part of the police. A similar amount of waiting might occur for catching people who run stop signs. I am not opposed to this work. I just think it should be done with a rake or a broom. If there are extra costs, the homeowners who bring them into our neighborhood to begin with should be able to pay them. Or, a better idea, do the work themselves. All blowers creat noise and clouds of air-borne debris. The gasoline powered ones are worse only in the fumes they add.

The City has no regard for neighborhood ambiance and aesthetics, public health and safety. That dilapidated house on the corner on Middlefield at
Everett that is rat infested held up by posts that sold months ago has a huge pile of trash in the driveway right near the sidewalk. Trash, ugly
streetscapes are a dominant theme in our neighborhoods. What you see in
Palo Alto is shocking. The City just doesn't get it and doesn't care.
We are far below norms in this respect and are scraping the bottom.

@Slow Down--You're right, "first world problems" is not an arguement, it's more of a statement of how trivial this "life altering problem" of leaf blowers is....When the ordinance was first instituted some 10 yrs ago, the comical "fix" was having a gardener use an electric blower powered by a gas generator on a cart. For me this "problem" is right up there with the supposedly deafening noise from SFO air traffic----a joke IMO. IF the "problem" of leaf blowers is SO bad why don't people get out and do their own gardening with a rake and broom....but then again, the dust is alittle scary as well. Life must be really good if this is such an issue.

Don't be surprised if our bright City Council members and the City Arts Department hire an "artist" to put together a " Sounds of Palo Alto" project.

@ Stanley - "Life must be really good if this is such an issue." Yes, that is totally true, so what? Do you think Palo Alto is so perfect that everyone should shut up because things can't get any better? I'm grateful we can argue about leaf blowers and air traffic and not water safety and the murder rate. Things should be better here, and things are a lot better than Palo Alto in many cities that are in worse positions.

The street sweepers stir up an enormous amount of dust. Why don't they fill up with water from one of the many houses under construction that are currently in the dewatering phase?

I have come to dread gas leaf blowers since they first came into common use in my neighborhood in the 80's. During that time I had a night job and slept during the day. In later years I've worked at home as a mother and writer. The sleep deprivation and loss of peace and quiet when I desperately needed it were crazy making.

I could write a book about all the problems I had with neighbors and groundskeepers about it. When blowers were legal during certain daytime hours, the groundskeepers where I lived routinely started them up before the legal start time, waking me and filling my apartment with gas fumes. I repeatedly spoke to them about it politely, with a smile, asking them to please start after the legal start time. Every week for months they refused. I brought them all cookies, asking again. They ate up the cookies and said they would start later. Next week, same thing. I marched out in my pajamas, bare feet and stringy hair, mad as a hornet and yelled at them to not ever start too early again, and I make quite a scene. They didn't dare start too early after that.

It was better for a while with the enforced ban. Now it's gotten bad again. All four in my family have asthma/allergies. I agree that Palo Alto needs to get on the ball with code enforcement, especially regarding blowers. Each groundskeeper uses them for about 30-45 minutes per property, and it’s off and on somewhere all day. I cannot enjoy my own yard, my own garden without one of those things ruining it. I agree that Palo Alto needs to be proactive and not only complaint-driven, increase the fines and make homeowners as well as groundskeepers responsible. I also agree that wealthy PA homeowners can afford to pay more for greener services. We hire TeamWorks Landscape Cooperative, and they don’t use gas blowers. We have them use brooms and rakes. I recommend them.

If I had to prioritize additional police department expenditures, I would want traffic enforcement to be the first one on the list.

I've worked in Palo Alto for over 20 years years and have spent many lunch hours eating and reading while parked on Palo Alto residential streets. I've noticed leaf blower operators walking around houses and parked cars, stopping, and obviously looking into windows of both, while carrying running leaf blowers. It took a few calls before I found anyone at the police dept. who was interested, but I eventually left a message for the (former) police chief and received a message back, saying that it indeed appeared as if the sound and presence of the leaf blowers could be being used as a "cover" for checking out robbery possibilities.

Obviously, neither the police dept. nor I was suggesting that all yard workers are suspicious. I was impressed that the police dept. cared enough to respond to me and I believed that they would carry out their own check of this issue. When given the address, day, time and a license plate number, they had something to work with. The next lunch time that I returned to that street, I noticed some men in a truck parked right behind the same luxury car that was being "checked out" previously. It could have been a coincidence, but I hoped that it was the car's owner or the police doing their own surveillance. I reported it and found another place to have lunch.

There were utilities workers trimming the branches around tree lines in my neighborhood recently. They were there with the chipper and the noise was all day. I was trying to work at home but it was much too noisy so went out to somewhere quieter for a few hours. On my return, they were still there and so was the noise.

The point is, we have a lot of noise being generated all day long every day.

Even at weekends, when it is usually weekend homeowners doing their own work.

I would like to see the noise curbed but I know that is unrealistic. At least they should not work before 8.00 am and after 6.00pm. The dust is annoying too. If we could water our landscaping it would do a lot to help with the dust.

I am wondering if anyone can compare the noise associated with lawn mowers to the decibel of gas leaf blowers?

Ban the Blow
Rakes do create clouds of dust when I rake pine needles (a fire hazard) from the unpaved parking verge.

What is absurd is the Gardeners who do comply by using an Electric Blower, must Run it from a Gas Generator. Where is the ordinance that would require property owners to have a WORKING power OUTSIDE outlets within 75 feet of any point of their yard. (the 75 number allows for a 100' cord to go around most obstructions. Longer cords drop too much voltage or are very thick)

No one has mentioned the other issue of Mow And Blow, Non-stop Gardener vehicle traffic on your street. DozenS of trucks (many with trailers) loaded with yard care tools pass by in front every day. How many PA residents even OWN a full set of basic yard care tools? (Mower, rake. push broom, shovel, pruning shears)

When and if we ever retire, we will take care of our yard ourselves. Until then, we have tried to find/convince gardeners not to use blowers. They all laughed and said they would lose money they could not afford to lose, because time = money, and they have a rather small profit margin.

With 60 hour work weeks, it will be a while before we can fire them.

@SteveU: I don't want to minimize your concern about the gardener vehicle traffic, but I think it would be unfair to tell residents they can't hire gardeners and must now do their own yard work. Many people are not physically capable, and many others work outside the home so much that they already have precious little family time and don't want to take more time away to do basic yard work. Probably need to choose battles we can actually have an affect on.

I think many of us have issues with different sorts of vehicle traffic - for me it's the ridiculous excessive speed with which cars travel on my street, and the increasing volume of non-resident employee vehicles speeding through town.

Honestly people get a grip of reality. Really your precious ears are being attacked by sound, oh my call the police.

You have reached a level of absolute ridiculousness that highlights how petty and vain Palo Alto really is. It is e NIMBY capital of the world. You all need to go take a Xanax and have a lie down. Kick the cat or do something productive. To complain about leaf blowers is ridiculous. And you'd be the first to cry about increased government interference and regulations into businesses. Pestulant hypocrites.

lots of noise but no answer from anyone about --WHAT does a leaf blower actually accomplish?? the only thing we can tell--is to get the leaves and other off one's property onto another or into the street---all great--until the neighbor's leaf blower blows right back where it came from. WHAT is being accomplished-=-other than paying leaf blowers to do WHAT??

yes, Sparty-- make fun of a very serious situation that could be solved with diligence and will power. here is his response

"along the same lines, there would be no drug cartel or drug crimes, if we simply stopped using drugs. problem solved--"

Excellent point. And if we made it illegal for anyone to own anything but one jumpsuit--the same design as everyone elses, it there would be no thievery because there would be nothing to steal.

do you have any idea how many lives are lost, ruined, gone for ever due to drugs? do you have any idea how many billions of dollars are spent buying drugs, selling drugs, and stopping drug crimes? do you know how many innocent children are enticed into buying their first "hit" of some minor drug--its ok, its cool, everyone does it? these lives are ruined forever. do you know how many hooked people are trying to quit after coming to the horrendous realization as to how low their lives have gotten? let's see, i wonder if the same can be said for your one jump suit? this isn't about stealing a jump suit--it is about lives being lost forever--either dead or wandering hopelessly. BIG DIFFERENCE!! it starts with one decision maker at a time--an individual (no matter what age) to stand up and say "NO" to drugs, and then another and another--whether these are leaders, parents, children, or... instead of the blase attitude--its ok everyone else does it. we don't see cartels running around selling jump suits. if lives dont matter to you--then keep doing what you are doing.

Leaf blower

Accomplish: Get debris out to where a rake or broom can be used without damage to drip irrigation or bushes, or humans (YOU reach into my rose bushes :) and you will change the tune fast).
BTW Rakes or Brooms are NOT recommended to clean leaves off of roofs. Blower, toward the edge only, is OK)

Note: Leaving Yard Debris in the street is illegal. So is dumping onto others property without permission (Right!).
My (now mostly unused because it is brown) Lawnmower has been Electric since 1973. Electric line trimmer (replaced a Bladed edger) and an Electric Blower, even an Electric Chainsaw, are also frequently used.

@ SteveU - roofs, lawns, and gardens predate leaf blowers by several millennia and cleaning hasn't required a leaf blower until recently. We deal with drip irrigation and rose bushes and rakes without issues. Bury the water line, and be careful with the rake where it is above ground.

The gas-powered leaf blower ban in residential neighborhoods in PA was passed by the city council as "complaint based"...which is code, by our council, for non-enforcement. If PAPD was told to just ticket them, when they see them (even without a prior complaint), this problem would have ended years ago. There was never any serious intention by our council to ban the blowers. They still don't.

Before leaf blowers people used to hose down walkways and driveways - require less noisy leaf blowers and then move on.

Palo Altans have become the most whiney people I've ever met. I've lived here 50+ years and the sound of leaf blowers aren't bringing the quality of life down, it's the people who live here.

Lucy and Bunyip have said it best!!Thank You!

Time to start putting your energy into something a little more important.....Get a grip on reality

Create a system where a person who regularly sees these violators to have a DEPUTY STATUS that allows an actual ARREST AND DETAINER CAPABILITY. That was why we had DEPUTIES IN THE FIRST PLACE! There goes the PAPD excuse for non-enforcement of existing law!
The Santa Clara County Sheriff has that capability, if they would get off their butts and enforce existing laws!
Colorado has several types of special deputies. They can even write tickets that fine the handicapped space abusers! These volunteer people use police radar speed guns to document speeders in residential areas and around school zones. BTW, Golden had a dummy squad car that got posted in high speed violation areas!( Yes where Coors beer is made )Since the PAPD claims to not have the people to keep those extra squad cars busy, why not do the same thing Golden does!

I note that there are some yuppies out there that do not take their CITIZENSHIP DUTIES seriously. Maybe a course in CIVICS is needed before they are allowed to live anywhere in the U.S., especially in Palo Alto.

( I could say something inflammatory about ILLEGAL ALIENS here but I won't waste my breath )

Remember, every law that is not enforced breaks down every other law...and we are supposed to be a Nation of Laws, not Men.

Ye all are just blowing hot air unless you adopt the Santa Monica solution. No cops involved at all, just money coming in and an end of the problem. So first fine the home owners. Then send out violations based on cell phone evidence from the neighbors. Accused perps can request court dates to contest the ticket and the folks who sent in the pictures would have to testify they took the pictures. Repeat offenders would get BIG fines. Problem solved.

The Palo Alto school district still uses them at our public schools during school hours when children are there. I doubt your going to see much change in residential neighborhoods as long as they are ok to use at schools. They are also used extensively on weekends by the work corps sent to the schools for community service.

I almost got evicted from our apartment as I had to stay on calling the police to get them to respond to my noise complaint...actually it was a combination of the gardener using the loud leaf blower (and having to wash my car once a week) and the use of the blower blowing the gas fumes right into my apartment windows and doors. I had to leave my apartment as the fumes were all consuming, leaving me gasping for air. I complained to the police, the managers also. The managers got mad at me for complaining and having to respond to the police and threatned to evict me. I am not an habitual complainer, but I sure had to complain that I couldn't breathe! The managers finally had to tell the gardeners to use their apartment electricity for the leaf blowers...obviously made them upset all the more but they finally conceded. It now has been 4 years ago and I noticed the gardeners are using the gas blowers again....oh brother.

Folks, the real power behind the gardeners (I prefer lawn janitors) is the real-estate industry. The gardeners are contemptuous of the PACC's ordinance, because the real-estate industry holds the servile PACC in contempt.

>> "Folks, the real power behind the gardeners (I prefer lawn janitors) is the real-estate industry."

Huh? How is the real estate industry (which, btw, includes practically everyone in the city) responsible for gardeners using blowers?

I'm happy to see that most people on this post are not only against gas leaf blowers, but ALL leaf blowers.

I don't see why some folks are spending a lot of time on this post to denigrate posters that would rather not breathe all the kicked up dust. Leaf blowers are easier than raking but are unnecessary. By the way @Stanley, most 3rd world places use a rake!

A good gardener could clear leaves nearly fast as one using a blower. Gardeners would adapt and would charge more if the market would bear it. Not much to pay for clean air and quieter environment.

Contact me to make something happen - [email protected]
Here is what I propose.

1. All citations should go to the home occupant. Never to the gardener. I guarantee the home occupant will then educate and instruct the gardener to rake.

2. Any city official, but especially police should be able to hang a citation on the home occupant's door by seeing the violation while passing by.

3. Maybe, any photos showing a leaf blower used on a property should be enough for a home occupant citation. This would take care of the problem that gardener is gone before a citation is issued.

Can I be cited for witnessing a crime and not reporting it?
Can I be cited for witnessing a code violation and not reporting it?

"The Palo Alto school district still uses them at our public schools during school hours when children are there. I doubt your going to see much change in residential neighborhoods as long as they are ok to use at schools. "

Snort. Good luck getting the school district to care about health issues concerning what children breath.

Posted by musical
a resident of Palo Verde
2 minutes ago

Can I be cited for witnessing a crime and not reporting it?
Can I be cited for witnessing a code violation and not reporting it?

In several states, YOU CAN BE CITED for not reporting a crime you witnessed. There are also laws that require a citizen to act as a Good Samaritan and protects the citizen from any actions because they followed that Good Samaritan law.

On code violations: check with the HOA involving the property. Since HOAs are the SS of our time, it maye be A REQUIREMENT as part of your responsibilities as a resident of your HOA. You might have to INFORM ON YOUR NEIGHBORS, just like the SS REQUIRED a German Citizen to do even before WWII even started . And you don't even get to wear a spiffy black uniform with lightning runes and death's heads on your collar.

If you would like to get involved in getting rid of leaf blowers in Palo Alto, please get in touch with me at [email protected]

Even if you do not wish to actively participate, we could keep you alerted to progress on this issue.
I will not use your email address in a mass mailing, just to get back to you.

So today, while walking to work on a residential street, a city contracting tree cutting service was using gas powered blowers full throttle. Let me repeat, city contracted tree service.

Our gardeners have been using an electric blower for nearly 10 years, and they really don't blow much other than magnolia leaves from the city trees. I think I can honestly say that every other yard service in our neighborhood uses gas blowers.

Leaf blower ordinance isn't enforced, parking on wrong side of street, or the huge amount of delivery trucks illegally parking is not enforced, cell phone driving will never be actively enforced, biking violations will never be enforced. Construction noise and hours will never be enforced. We just deal with these things being unpleasant, and maintain our skepticism when people start talking about enforcing something, or passing a new ordinance to deal with parking issues or what not.

The cities where gas blowers bans have been highly successful have been cities where the fine is much higher than a $100(after three warnings), and where the homeowners, not the gardeners, pay the fine. In those cities, police officers issue the citation on the spot, unlike Palo Alto, where only a resident's complain will initiate(or not) the process.

Palo Alto was never serious about enforcing the ordinance.

It wasn't long after the ordinance went into effect that I started seeing city gardeners blowing the square in front of city hall with an electric blower plugged into a gasoline powered generator. Over the years I have seen them several times, and several at other locations in the residental area around downtown.

But, we're the city, the rules don't apply to us.

[Post removed.]

I hate to resurrect comments on an old article, but I wanted to ask why the city has laws against gas-powered leaf blowers if almost NONE of the gardeners in the city follow the law (even years after the laws were passed)?

The gardeners who service our apartment almost ALWAYS use gas-powered blowers. It is terrible for us in the mornings because we use window fans and the fumes from the blowers flood inside (and have, on two occasions, set off our smoke detector).

According to Edmunds, gas-powered leaf blowers emit more fumes than trucks and cars.

Web Link

It seems that this is the case nearly everywhere around Palo Alto. Almost every time that I see a gardener in a residential neighborhood using a leaf blower, it is gas-powered. My husband has spoken with the gardeners and they initially pretended that they cannot speak English. So, he conversed with them in Spanish. They claim that the law only applies to certain times of the day.

If the city wants to enforce this law that they've passed, then they need to contact each and every gardening company. They need law enforcement (like the meter maids) to travel through neighborhoods in order to levy infractions against those who violate such laws. The city needs a telephone number by which we can inform the city about those who violate the law -- and which the city will contact those companies.