Saturday, October 02, 2004
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VANCOUVER, British Columbia – Don't blow off the leaf blower.
That's what a defender says after Vancouver city council passed a bylaw Thursday banning backpack-carried leaf blowers from the West End. The blowers save gardeners time and money, as well as their wrists, backs, and morale, say their supporters.
Their detractors say they're just plain noisy.
"The irony is that a modern blower is the quietest piece of equipment in the truck," says Gordon McArthur, manager of Para Space Landscaping, which grooms nine properties in the West End no-blow-zone. "There's a lot of misunderstanding of what a leaf blower is for. It's developed a reputation for being a useless piece of equipment. But it's not."
He says the ban will hurt his business, especially if it's extended to the entire City of Vancouver, which he expects.
The ban encompasses the area bounded by Burrard Street, Georgia Street, the eastern boundary of Stanley Park, and Beach Avenue.
But paying people $12 to $14 dollars to rake for an hour instead of blowing for 20 minutes could also mean higher maintenance costs for condo dwellers.
"It's just going to take longer," said McArthur. "The bigger the area, the more dramatic the increase [in time and cost] will be. We're not spending $500 on machines because we like to make noise. If you've ever tried to broom wet leaves off a roadway, you'll know how slow it is."
He says the ban could also be a "recipe for more injury."
"It's pretty frustrating for the guys. It's not that they're afraid of physical work. They're looking down a 500-foot long sidewalk and somebody hands you a broom. It's pretty demoralizing."
Councilor Tim Stevenson, who made the motion to ban the blowers, said he has received many complaints about the noise in the densely populated high-rise neighborhood. The West End Residents Association has also called the blowers an annoyance.
But McArthur said he wonders how many people on council "have looked at a 2,000-square-foot lawn and get out a rake. It's not easy to do that."
Piet Rutgers, director of planning and operations for the Vancouver Park Board, says the city's landscapers have complained in the past about the potential for "repetitive strain injuries" from raking and sweeping.