Leaf Blower violation

MTCInc

MTCInc

Location
Bay Area, California
I was working a job in Palo Alto, CA last week... Two day Oak prune, with a large Oak overhanging the street. We made quite a mess in the street, as you can imagine.

Came time to clean up, and I was still in the tree pruning. Had one of my other guys on the ground raking and chipping, and another in the back yard raking.

One of them got out the blower ( no gas blowers allowed in PA) and began blowing off the street while the chipper was still running. As I am in the tree, I see a cop drive by, and slow down.... checking out my truck. Does not approach us.

Well, today I get home and find a $100 citation in my mail box. They got the VIN off the truck, and sent me a bill for using a gas blower.

Its so classic, because PA is one of those towns where lots of people do not want a speck of anything on their sidewalk or driveway... they are the ones who have created this issue, just because they demand such cleanliness.

I guess I am now buying an electric blower and a really LONG extension cord. I know of a landscaper who works a high end property and puts a generator on a wagon... one guy blows, while the other pulls around the generator in the wagon. Not using a gas blower, but now using a gas generator.

What a joke. Whats next, a ban on gas brush chippers?
 
What a joke. Bureaucracy at its finest.

I love your buddy's solution. Using a gas generator to power an electric blower, is like giving big brother the proverbial finger.

You'll need one hell of a generator to run an electric chipper.
 
I hate blowers! I went through a development the other day and this fool had blown all of his yard debris into the street. People ought to get over having their yard clean enough to eat off of.....it's the great outdoors for damn sakes!
 
Yeah, blow away the leafs and fertilize the lawn.....
crazy.gif
 
I was in a top dollar neighborhood helping a friend who is a gardener in seattle. She said her client insisted that we used a "outdoor" vacuum to suck up the leaves. I just about puked. The place felt allot cleaner when we left, just because I wasnt there.
 
One reason we call it the Left Coast. Unfortunately the wind blow to the east and eventually we get the same crap. This one really makes no sense though.
 
it is a violation in several of our bay area communities, although i don't know how you are supposed to know about it. for sure in tiburon as well.
one trick i heard of was to run your chainsaw to drown it out, but i guess that would only work where the blower can't be seen...
hm, i suppose i could try to find out how the blowers came to get banned..
 
mANY years ago I remember this becoming a huge issue for the grounds maintenance industry. Their trade organizations got involved to bring a reasonable law to the books. In most cases the issue is the constant pervasive noise pollution. But...balance that with the result of the use. there isn't another practical solution. Water costs even more, raking and sweeping take much longer and don't do the same job.

From the articles that I've read about the use of leaf blowers most reasonable communities put them in with other noise related rules. Generally it's illegal to make too much noise in a residential area outside of business hours. The laws apply to homeowners and commercial people too. Having the trash truck banging cans at 7am is a bit too early. Hearing the neighbor mowing the yard at 8pm is out of line too.
 
I think another negative to blowers is all of the particles they put into the air that then settles in the neighborhood. I saw a city employee the other day blowing off a long sidewalk that had been edged and he had a very large cloud of dust going while car after car passed through this cloud. Now that can't be good for dozens or hundreds of the car engines/filters that passed or the citizens sitting in them. Airborn particle pollution should be more of a concern, IMO.
 
Well.....sounds like an opportunity as this complaint about noisey, dusty, blowers is spreading like the flu. I have had to turn off my blower to get yelled at by an angry neighbor. I laughed and started blowing again but in no way recomend or endorse this type of behavior. It may well be part of the reason for such laws. Anyway....the creation of a quiet, efficient, compact vacume of some sort would yield great wealth for the creator and bring gold and silver for years to come for the family of said creator. So quit complaining and start thinking!
 
Wow. Some people have WAYYYY too much time on their hands.

Two thumbs up on the buddy with the generator! HAHAHA!
 
I love my Stihl backpack blower - we leave a yard and street in front cleaner than they were when we got there. It's also not the loudest tool we employ. As far as a carbon footprint, well it's a mix-burner but not more than a few minutes.

I think what pisses neighbors off are the lawn mowin' crews blowing out to the street where the leaves and grass and dust just vector around and find another yard to settle in, most always just next door. It's a "not in MY yard" thing, something like a national cultural contagion spreading faster than war drums and WMD rumors. There are hundreds of pro lawn crews here, the town of just a few thousand...I noticed they have trailer loads of equipment, generate tons of refuse, yet never haul anything other than gear - they blow it next door, out into the street, or down the storm drains. Kind of chaffs my hide too.

Can't have whitebread houses and neat picket fences without toxic materials, illegal labor, cheap supplies from China and a WalMart down the street. Instead of blaming the labor that makes it possible to dream a life like Ward Cleaver and Elm Street U.S.A., they should organize instead to arrest child molesting clergy, tax the beJesus out of luxury SUV's, and quit investing in Wall Street and leave alone the little things that make their little picture-perfect tract houses possible.
 
Yo I bought a 600 too! It can move a lot of stuff up to and including small limbs. On over roof jobs, we go the distance and blow-out all the customer's gutters - easy work - and they remember who it was that did their trees. I blew-out the cab of my truck today - everything went somewhere else...even some important stuff. Pricey machine but time saved raking alone this Fall - she's more than paid for herself. I might get the old in-line roller blades out of storage and try wearing the 600 for some experimental recreation - if I lived in MN I'd take her ice skating!
 
I think Dan has a valid point with small particulate matter in the air. I try to use my blower within reason. What I mean is this, I rake and/or use a push broom as much as possible.

As far as emmissions go... Well, I can't control that. The manufacturers need to take care of that.

I've though of giving one of these a whirl.
 
I'm also a fan of the push broom. It doesn't take much longer until you have a parking lot to clean and it seems that the clients driveway only stays blower clean until about ten minutes after you drive away and a gust of wind or rain redistributes everything. Just like I use a forestry rake to rake branches and twigs so that I am not expected to rake up and dethatch every leaf in the yard. Thats what other people specialize in to make their living.
 
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