they are doing it NOW and i cant hear anything else in my house.i need to run and close all my windows!!!

what can i do to help the town councel change their minds?

Curious about this:

Are there towns where this has gone into affect?

What are the environmental impacts of leaf blowers aside from gasoline use?

Are there towns where gas lawnmowers are banned?

What about those of us with electric blowers that aren't polluting? I would agree with a ban in terms of times for operation. I've got a neighbor who loves to run his weed waker all day long and until all hours of the night. Overall I'm more concerned about the noise pollution between the lawnmowers, leaf blowers and weed wakers.

Death to the leaf blowers! Loud, annoying, disruptive. I'd hire a GREEN lawn service in a heart beat! Reel mowers and rakes, now that's the ticket. Most of us have diminutive gardens -- why do we need more? Oh and we'd get exercise while we were at it.

hear hear ! want to start a real campain to get rules/ laws taken seriously?

I live in a beautiful neighborhood of Trenton and I have 3 neighbors surrounding my home who use the same high-decibel lawn service, so the service comes to do all 3 properties at the same time--which takes about 2.5 to 3 hours. I have not complained about the deafening noise, except when they begin the work at 4:30 or 5 p.m. on weekends. I have a pool area where I like to relax and entertain for weekend dinners. The gas powered leaf blowers are the worst culprits--you can't be outside and hear yourself think. Mys sister & her family visited 4 weeks ago and we were planning to have dinner poolside. The noise was so bad, we had to go out for dinner to get away from it. I have discussed this situation with my neighbors, who all say they have no control over when the lawn service guys show up. I am looking to Maplewood to try to get our City Council to ban lawn services from being able to do this work after 2 oe 3 p.m. on weekends. It's now Saturday evening of Labor Day weekend & the lawn service showed up at 5:10 p.m. I can't download your ordinance due to some technical glitch. So I'm planning to call Maplewood town hall Tuesday to have someone email me a copy of the ordinance. I have no issue with individual homeowners cutting their lawns at whatever time, since they don't seem to have the noisy equipment. But these services are taking advantage of people in Trenton. I asked the guys as they started, why didn't they come here this morning. I'm sure they were in Princeton, where, id they started doing lawns at 5 p.m. they'd be run out of town.

Bea Scala-Fischler

They are unfortunately a reality. BUT the town should absolutely limit the hours. Blowers have been link to higher asthma problems in children. ( blowing should have to be done between 9:15 and 2:15 allowing the dust to settle before the kids get out of school. This time of year when Anthony's comes to do the three houses near me there is a green cloud around my house for at least an hour and a half. My car gets covered in leaves and dust. They don't pick up what they blow they just blow it down the drain pipes (illegal and immoral) or into the middle of the street. I have contacted the company several times to no avail. If someone starts a petition I'd happily help.

I don't agree that these are a reality. Just like we wouldn't tolerate other destructive or intrusive behavior (such as atvs or excessively loud music) I don't see why we should tolerate leaf blowers. Peopled managed to garden for 1000's of years without them. Let's push to ban them entirely!
You have added good info: that they are linked to childhood asthma (if you could provide a reference that would be great) and that the landscapers blow debris into the drains. If someone has a photo of this we could attach it to the petition!

leaf blowers are the worst things ever invented. many men
use them as though they are toys when they are harmful
to health, ruin our short period of decent weather outside,
and force one to close windows before all the disgusting
fumes, and particles get inside. in our convent station
neighborhood there is hardly ever a day we dont have to
put up with them. bring back the good old days when lawns were raked and teenage boys took care of lawns.
it is asinine that we have these huge rigs tearing up our
streets for our little plots of land. why when the greening
of america is called for, we dont hear about leaf blowers,
dirty trucks, and buses, etc?
sign me,
angry and perplexed

Was any progress made on this this year?

If not, sounds like we should get more people "voting" on this issue, which would raise its overall profile. This site works well as a petitioning system, since it is very easy to find.

I saw that about 300 people voted for new bus service using SeeClickFix in another city, and the city council passed new legislation as a result.

Do you people have any idea how long it would take to remove leaves without using a blower. Here's a thought. If leafblowers used during normal working hours bother you so much, take a valium and/or go rake your neighbors leaves yourself.

I know ezactly how long it'd take, I raked my parents' enormous yard for 16 years.
I'm not going to descend to your level or comment on tha valium jibe, but I suggest that if you have nothing constructive to add to the discussion you keep your comments to yourself.

Then rake everyone else' leaves *content removed for violating SeeClickFix Terms Of Service.

Welcome to Hypersensiburbia, NJ. You know what? My neighbor starting his car every morning really bothers me. So does the WM truck picking up garbage. So does the automatic garage door up the block. Get a life already.

I bet your lawn looks like an overgrown jungle! These leaf blowers are a form of technology to help services AND homeowners keep their properties looking great...did you think about property & home values when you wrote this ridiculous complaint? try selling your home in 07040 or So. O. with lawns that are raked....or go out and rake your neighbors lawn yourself and see how long it takes and how your back feels afterward.
Get up off our butt & close your laptop and work...then you would know how necessary leaf blowers are to maintaining properties, a hard days work by our local landscaping companies...that work very hard for their customers. Get a life!

Dear Maplewoodian,

The lawn looks...like a lawn. In the springtime, this includes--wait for it--dandelions! They live alongside the grass. And in the fall, it includes leaves. It's ok for the outside world to appear as if it's actually outside, I think. If you want to expend a lot of hydrocarbons and dollars towards the end of making your front yard look like it's actually a terrarium, well, that strikes me as misguided.

There's absolutely such a thing as being disrespectful to one's neighbors by letting the lawn go totally unkempt. But wouldn't you agree that it's possible that very loud yard equipment running all the time might also be considered a nuisance? Surely there's some happy medium somewhere in there that we can aim for.

And regarding laziness and raking--the raking is fantastic. It's a great way to get outside, get some exercise, listen to the radio on headphones on a Sunday afternoon for a while. Sure, you would get the job done faster with a leaf blower, but it would come at the wholly unnecessary expense of dollars, noise and atmospheric pollution, and the loss of a nice opportunity to spend some time outdoors. If you don't believe me, give it a try some time!

Sincerely,

another Maplewoodian