Have you contacted your representative to the city government. Sounds like a politician has an axe to grind with his neighbor. I can't imagine not having a leaf blower/vac in the fall.

 

I would tell the city, they need to provide someone to come clean up your leaves then,

What if you had a medical condition, and could not rake them?

 

Do you live on Long Island? My bro in law will stop by to ***** with you.

 

Do you live on Long Island? My bro in law will stop by to * with you.

I used to live on Long Island about 65 years ago but was successful in my escape to America.

 

I agree with you, something doesn't sound right.

Sounds like it may be a political issue or too many noise complaints, there has to be a reason why they did it. Go to your next local municipality board meeting and air your grievance, see if you can gather up support for unbanning them and find out the exact reason why they were banned in the first place.

 

I have always found the blowers to damn loud. I have always wondered why it was acceptable to move my trash, leaves, grass to the public street instead of picking it up.

 

I do hate leaf blowers. They make an awful noise worse than other gas powered equipment. I could see something like a decibel limit, or a restricted time window for using them, but both of those are harder to enforce than an outright ban so maybe that's the reason.

Anyway get yourself a push broom for the patio. And don't bother raking the yard, I mulch all my leaves with the mower and it does just fine that way.

 

MOVE !!!

 

It would be better if there were understandable reasons for a new order like that.

 

There are other uses for those leaf blowers.
Leaf-Blower Supercharging '78 Chevy Monza Spyder! 130 MPH! | Roadkill | MotorTrend - YouTube

 

I'm mixed.

Hearing them drives me nuts, but I feel similarly about electric ones. Definitely two reasons are going on behind these laws: climate... and constant noise complaints. I had a neighbor who was always running his Stihl backpack before 8:00am on the weekends. 30 minutes worth, every time.

 

The only issues I have are when people use leaf blowers to blow their yard debre to the center of the street, instead of picking it up!

Regarding the electric stuff, I have 2 neighbors that have battery operated lawnmowers, they cannot even do their who yard with having to stop and recharge.

 

One might ask yourself, whom might police this? The leaf blower police or your back stabbing neighbor.

Seems like it has become very easy to make rules that are unenforceable.

 

Doesnt California have some restrictions on stuff like this?

 

At least they haven't banned grilling smoke. Some townships in third world states have banned the use of grills due to the smoke offending some snowflakes.

 

Probably a bunch of people complained if someone (one person or a company) was doing work before 9am. Most local govts have sound ordinance to address those annoyances, I'd poke your local town govt to get the real reason(s) and go from there. That's too strict if you can only use an electric for one out of three seasons.

 

Leaf blowers are completely obnoxious. And most of the people who use them have no manners. It would be difficult to ban only the loud ones that sound like industrial equipment. It would be impossible to get people to use them with manners. Most people FEEL entitled to just satisfy themselves. Many people use them for 40 minutes which completely ruins it for the neighbors to use their yards.
The leaf blowers add to air pollution because of all the nasty stuff that becomes airborne. Most users blow their trash into the street and the storm drains which causes flooding. Most people blow their crap onto someone else's property.
I don't like leaf blowers.
However I have an electric leaf vacuum. It is quiet. It mulches. It doesn't pollute the air. It puts everything in my bag.

 

Leaf blowers are completely obnoxious. And most of the people who use them have no manners. It would be difficult to ban only the loud ones that sound like industrial equipment. It would be impossible to get people to use them with manners. Most people FEEL entitled to just satisfy themselves. Many people use them for 40 minutes which completely ruins it for the neighbors to use their yards.
The leaf blowers add to air pollution because of all the nasty stuff that becomes airborne. Most users blow their trash into the street and the storm drains which causes flooding. Most people blow their crap onto someone else's property.
I don't like leaf blowers.
However I have an electric leaf vacuum. It is quiet. It mulches. It doesn't pollute the air. It puts everything in my bag.

It still makes a whrrrrrrrrr noise, it's powered by the nearby Soviet-era coal plant or rare-earth mineral Lithium battery, and you can dump all your mulched debris on your whiny neighbors yard or into the storm drain. CHECKMATE 🤓

 

No gas blowers, no electric blowers. Can I hook up a boiler and use a home made steam powered blower? I would try it…and I would fire the boiler with coal.

 

Only if you use a steam whistle as the part that does the blowing.

 

Can you post the ordinance? Maybe cut and paste?

 

I have an old army flame thrower that doesn't make too much noise. Bet they don't have an ordinance for that one -------Yet. I'll bet they probably have an ordinance against not cleaning up the leaves too. Fill a bunch of bags full and toss them on the town offices front steps at night. Some people did that in a town in NH with their garbage. (Just make sure nothing in it has an address.)

 

You used to be able to get away with that but with the proliferation of relatively cheap video cameras to go along with security systems, you never know when you're being filmed. Cover up!

 

Just as I was explaining.

 

This is probably the most ridiculous ordinance I've ever heard! Yes, leaf blowers are noisy but so are a lot of other things. Does this ban also apply to commercial contractors? If so I bet they are raising holy ....! There really aren't many other options for removing leaves in large quantities that are reasonably priced. Vacuums work but are very expensive and won't get the leaves out of bed etc. You can mulch the leaves with a lawnmower but again you can't drive them through beds. You can rake but that's very strenuous especially for older people and especially if you have a lot of leaves it can be a very major problem.

I'm betting that this town also has regulations requiring lawns to be neatly kept! If it does just let your grass grow and let the leaves pile up and when they give your citation tell them that you need to use your blower to clean it up! I will put them between a rock and a hard space.

By the way what state are you in? I'm guessing either California, New York or New Hampshire!

 

NH is getting better when people can get together bound by Roberts Rules of Order. I was on a comity to draft an ordinance for use of residential / professional zone by contractors who owned their trucks / heavy equipment. We came up with a very fair proposal to replace a one sided ordinance. For some legalities we did not have it ready to submit that year. about 2 years later I recognized it on the town warrant. the only change was when it came to noise work start time and others the only thing that had been changed were the words "To be detected by instruments, at the property line" No opinions allowed anymore.

 

People have the politicians they deserve. Because they vote for them.

 

I bought my leaf vacuum for $12 at a thrift store. I modified the bag. Works terrific. Better than blower. And faster.
Innovate.

 

For example, other gas powered tools are not banned, such as, snow blowers, chain saws, lawn mowers, masonry saws, power generators, air compressors, and hedge trimmers.

Being the reasonable person that I am(big grin), I'd rig up some sheet metal, some duct work, maybe a flexible hose if available, hook it to your lawn mower chute.

Short story... town where I used to live banned outdoor burning of leafs and such. I composted leaves, but the branches from the trees/hedges did not compost very well. My neighbor called the local enforcement when she saw a small bonfire in my back yard. Guy comes to the back, starts to yell at me. I pointed to my fire, which was in my BBQ grill, told him I was making charcoal. I did have a package of hotdogs on a nearby table. He shook his head and walked away.

FWIW...Don.

 

Similar for a small burn fire in a ring. Have the hotdogs and weenie sticks ready. If you are permitted an open fire at all. With dry regions I can understand the concern. Embers can float away and cause big trouble.

 

I have heard of some municipalities up here being asked to ban them but I don't know if any have been successful. It's usually resident's of poncy, leafy neighbourhoods in large cities. Everybody around here is on a minimum 2 acre wooded lot so it's just part of the accepted autumn landscape. We do have noise bylaws that govern the times when they can be used, and I think this is a large part of the problem in areas that want them banned, because many use maintenance contractors and somebody's going to be the first when their day starts.

In one nearby town, folks would rake to the curb and the town would send a vacuum truck down the road a few times each Fall. They stopped doing that and everybody had to put out bags but them might go back since the vacuum truck was faster and cheaper.

I wonder when these urban warriors would think if they had to have some tree work done and the crew left a bunch of chips and bits on their fancy driveway or patio. With no blower, the crew would likely charge more to manually sweep it up.

I detest meddlesome people that push for such garbage. With people moving out to the country, the province eventually had to pass 'right to farm' legislation because the displaced cidiots were complaining about funny smells, slow farm equipment on the road and late night/Sunday harvesting.

 

I prefer Tim Allen power equipment myself.

 

Our local town has an electric-blower only ordinance. It's enforced. The reason was both the noise and the single-stroke engine pollution. Gas weed whackers are okay but that's the same engine I believe.

I used to watch the neighbor's landscaper blow chasing their leaves down the sidewalk REV! REV! REV! REV! REV!
And it was fun to get out a 30" broom and do my side in less time.

One guy has an electric blower and it whistles like a dentist drill on overdrive.

Another neighbor uses her garden hose and we're in the middle of a drought here.

There are no solutions only compromises.