By Kevin Glass / October 24, 2016
Fall brings temperate weather, changing colors, falling leaves and — if the nannies in New Jersey have anything to say about it — backbreaking labor.
Neighborhood advocacy groups across the state have been working to prohibit the use of leaf blowers, which they say are too noisy and disrupt the peace and quiet of their neighborhoods.
Earlier this year, Maplewood, New Jersey, banned leaf blowers used by commercial businesses for the summer, largely because residents objected to the loud noises. Now, activists in Princeton are working to ban leaf blowers for the same reason.
Quiet Princeton, an organization of local Princeton residents opposed to anything breaking the peace of the New Jersey town, has pushed for a reduction in leaf-blower noise. There are existing regulations on the books about leaf-blower noise, but that’s not enough for Quiet Princeton.
“Back in the ’90s an effort was made in Princeton to ban leaf blowers outright, but it failed,” Tony Lunn, a Quiet Princeton activist, told Mercer Space, a publication of Community News Service..
Princeton’s current ordinance calls for landscapers to be as quiet as possible, but its subjectivity has the activists upset. “No one would think this reasonable,” Lunn said. Some have attempted to get a 65-decibel limit written in as the legal regulation.
In Maplewood, the city is holding hearings to expand the summer leaf-blower ban. An Oct. 18 Township Committee meeting had many residents voicing their hatred for leaf blowers.
“Why should they be able to disrupt my quality of life as a taxpayer so my neighbor can have a few blades of grass blown around?” one resident said, according to NJ.com.
A prohibition limited to commercial leaf blowers means the burden falls disproportionately on landscaping companies, rather than, say, neighbors doing their own landscaping work. Other than driving up the cost for landscaping work, this is a burden for the manual laborers as well — many of whom are unlikely to be able to afford to live in a posh suburb like Maplewood, where the median household income is over $100,000 per year.
https://watchdog.org/279609/nanny-state-week-new-jerseys-great-leaf-blowing-war/
This has happened in Westchester also. One has to admit that you cannot enjoy being out side with leaf blower noise.
If I can’t get what I want, let me get the state to use its police power to do my bidding.
Great. So this means that we can go back to burning the leaves?
Here in Ridgewood, there is a power equipment noise ordinance, especially no later on Saturday at 1pm and all day Sunday. It would be best if we just stick to the laws on the books.
If the noise of yard work is high on your list of complaints in life – count your blessings.
Get a barrel and a rake….make a workout out of it.
I hate it that every Saturday morning a couple of neighbors come out with their arsenal of heavy artillery for landscaping and it feels like for 2-3 hours I am living in a war zone. Use a freaking rake of buy a decent leaf blower or grass mower OR do your landscaping later in the day. Landscape companies are even worse.
On the other hand I am guilty of making some noise after 1PM. I was never aware of the ordinance.
How is Westchester handling the enormous amount of leaves on their end if the blowers are prohibited?