Leaf Blowers - Does No One Rake/Sweep Leaves Anymore? (apartment, maintenance)

[BugsyPal]

Ok, have gotten used to the sound of leaf blowers on Staten Island or NJ, but now it seems increasingly Manhattan has caught the bug.


Early morning to well into late evening building superintendents/maintenance workers are out there with those GD leaf blowers and that loud/annoying noise they make.

[sportzfn]

OMG leaf blowers. Don't get me started on those horrid things.

[Werdywerd]

So we've run out of things to complain about...huh

[BugsyPal]

Originally Posted by Werdywerd

So we've run out of things to complain about...huh

It's no laughing matter.....


Imagine hearing this outside your apartment window early every AM:





https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-VI0AKlAzDI

[l1995]

People should leave the leaves right where they are

[city living]

Originally Posted by BugsyPal

It's no laughing matter.....

Imagine hearing this outside your apartment window early every AM:

Yeah. I worked nights for YEARS and had that wake me up multiple times per week during certain time periods. Sometimes I was lucky and they did it in the morning while I was still awake. But it would be right below my window, where I am over the garage for my building.

You can also get a daily dose of those leaf vacuum things.

[antinimby]

Originally Posted by BugsyPal

Ok, have gotten used to the sound of leaf blowers on Staten Island or NJ, but now it seems increasingly Manhattan has caught the bug.


Early morning to well into late evening building superintendents/maintenance workers are out there with those GD leaf blowers and that loud/annoying noise they make.

Usually if it’s a bad idea, things will catch on.

Not only are they bad for the environment (burning fossil fuels just to blow leaves around. Imagine mllions of these things going off around the world at any given time and the millions of gallons of gasoline burned just to move plant matter around the surface of the earth where it naturally is suppose to be anyway) but they kick up all the dust and other particulates into the air, where you’ll breathe it in and/or land on your face, hair and clothes. They themselves also pollute exhaust like an out of tune vehicle.

[Chava61]

They make the same noise as snow blowers. One just has to get used to it!

[FrankInPhilly]

Originally Posted by antinimby

Usually if it’s a bad idea, things will catch on.

Not only are they bad for the environment (burning fossil fuels just to blow leaves around. Imagine mllions of these things going off around the world at any given time and the millions of gallons of gasoline burned just to move plant matter around the surface of the earth where it naturally is suppose to be anyway) but they kick up all the dust and other particulates into the air, where you’ll breathe it in and/or land on your face, hair and clothes. They themselves also pollute exhaust like an out of tune vehicle.

The gas-powered models do, indeed, pollute at a rate that's far greater than what you'd expect from something that small (akin to "punching above your weight") - see https://ww2.kqed.org/news/2017/02/13...uality-threat/, among others. In Philly, we have restrictions (usually honored) about when you can run lawn mowers and similar devices. Fortunately, we're so un-filtered here that if someone wanted to beat the summer heat and started blowing/mowing at 6:30 on a weekend morning, they'd hear at least a couple of strenuous objections pretty quickly.

Personally, I enjoy raking leaves. I work as a programmer, so my "product" is nicely 0s and 1s on a disk. Raking and other yard work is more tangible, not to mention the mild exercise it provides.

[ABQConvict]

Originally Posted by Werdywerd

So we've run out of things to complain about...huh

Are you kidding. We can drop 75% of complaints and leaf blowers would still be on the valid complaint list.