Would you support a ban on gas powered leaf blowers in Milton? POLL

A recent Milton Neighbors post was so powerful it drew comments and ire from people who rarely post in the group.

What was so outrageous?

A complaint about six simultaneous leaf blowers working on one yard.

A resident said, “My pleasant walk on Columbine Road was disrupted by the din of six leaf blowers operating at once in a small space. Surely the profit derived from accomplishing a job quickly does not outweigh the impact on neighbors’ hearing. I ask neighbors who hire landscape companies to intervene to reduce the noise. I ask landscape companies to switch to battery-powered blowers.”

And, wow, did the trolls come out in full force with their clever “Karen” and “triggered” gifs.

(Isn’t it weird, how there seem to be more Milton residents who are sensitive to complaints about noise – than residents who actually complain about noise?)

Anyway, here were some of the comments:

“I hear you… but only just because the same thing has been going on in our neighborhood. So distracting. Noise pollution is a real thing.”

“The guy in the foreground seems to be blowing nothing but air.
I fail to see any profit here. The amount of leaves could have been raked by one person in less than 30 minutes.”

“Batteries don’t stay charged for long. This is pretty efficient.”

“Honestly this is absurd. If the yard was dirty complaints would be flying. 6 guys will get it done in half the time. If there was less guys it would take twice as long with noise lasting longer.”

“Ridiculous to have so many for sure. In addition to noise pollution, they also contribute to air pollution. Nasty pieces of unnecessary machinery just so people can have a “perfect” unnatural yard. Guessing tons of pesticides and fertilizer too. All of this in just one small yard - imagine the impact of of the 90 million or so single family homes in America- never mind all the commercial use.”

“I’m sorry you are getting attacked for calling out that leaf blowers are actually terrible for the environment. Here’s a simple accessible article anyone can read. Educate yourselves before attacking, there’s a lot of data on how bad leaf blowers are. Before leaf blowers, people somehow were able to keep up there lawns just fine 🙂”

“lol. why is anyone defending those things, they are terrible.
i know they’re everywhere here but thought it was a just bad habit being ignored ( i have chosen to ignore in my neighborhood ) but really surprised people are actually publicly defending the use of them. – they’re awful.”

“Good grief! This has certainly sparked agitation! I love a tidy garden, too. But everybody knows gas-powered leaf blowers cause air and noise pollution. Some communities ban their use. Some ban all leaf blowers. A few ban gas powered lawn mowers, too. How sad that Milton is not more proactive and positive about making our neighborhoods and our planet better.”

“FYI: A ban on gas-powered leaf blowers in Lexington passed with 85% of the vote during a town meeting in November 2021. The ban, which is currently seasonal, could take effect in May and would move to a full ban in 2025.
Ditto Arlington.”

There were many terrible comments as well, so we shut the post down.

A new post in support of the original poster can be seen here.

🫨 Would you support a ban on gas powered leaf blowers in Milton?

To take the poll, head on over to Milton Neighbors.

Disclaimer:

Miltonscene.com online surveys are not intended to be a scientific sample of local opinion. Instead, they are a way for readers to share their opinions with the Milton Scene and Milton Neighbors.

Respondents are not randomly selected, but select themselves to vote on a specific question or set of questions. In addition, while Miltonscene.com online polls and surveys are designed to allow only one vote per user, technically savvy users may find ways around this limitation. For these reasons, the polls and surveys are not presented as scientific surveys or as representative of the opinion of the general population of our readership areas, region or nation.

Winning businesses are not permitted to win in two categories. In the case where winning businesses place first choice in two different categories, the category in which the winner has the most total votes will be the business’s winning category.