JCC 2118/25
RE: Leaf Blowers 18 February 2025
After decades of attempts and through determined effort by Redondo residents, in August of 2018, a ban on all motorized leaf blowers had finally materialized. To my great relief, the City Council concurred that all leaf blowers foul the air we breathe as well as disturb the peace and quiet of neighborhoods.
For more than five years, the neighborhood where I live was, at last, relatively quiet and the environment wasn't being chronically assaulted by these machines. Unfortunately, since the leaf blower ban was amended to include the use of battery powered leaf blowers, there also has been a high resurgence in the use of gas- powered leaf blowers. Presently, all leaf blowers are being used around the neighborhood, where for five years there had been virtually none. The neighborhood is not any "cleaner", it's actually messier, dirtier and noisier.
If the larger concern with the leaf blower ban was because of city worker's cost and inconvenience, more consideration could have been given to reducing or eliminating inconsequential and unnecessary workloads and supplying them access to battery powered vacuums.
Biasedly worded surveys assumed that battery powered leaf blowers would make our neighborhoods "clean and beautiful" and they are clearly mistaken. Surveys are more often than not, skewed and worded to give an answer that either obscures the issue, misinforms or misleads respondents in order to give a distinctly preferred outcome.
There is a saying that goes something like this, "if it ain't broke, don't fix it". The ban on all motorized leaf blowers wasn't broken, and it didn't need fixing.
In weeks past, | observed six separate incidents where gas powered leaf blowers were being used.
And all the while, the peace disturbing battery powered leaf blowers are continuing to whip up plumes of dirt, debris, contaminants and toxic particulate matter that settles throughout entire neighborhoods.
It is apparent to me that some city leaders and personnel are not concerned in preserving the sanctity of the environment nor in the quality of life of residents as they often purport to be. It seems to me that some of them DO want residents to retreat inside, keep doors and windows shut as leaf blowers continue to pollute the environment. In essence, air and noise polluters now reign supreme in the City of Redondo Beach.
I will always have the utmost regard, respect and appreciation for Councilmember Todd Lowenstein in voicing his irrefutable wisdom, and wholeheartedly thank him for his steadfast support and unwavering efforts in attempting to keep the ban against all motorized leaf blowers intact. My hope is that Redondo Beach will soon become enlightened enough to realize that by allowing the use of battery powered leaf blowers, it has only confounded, compounded and exacerbated this entire issue and it has failed to protect the health and well-being of its residents from the detrimental polluting effects and the unnecessary nuisance caused by these machines and that the City Council will once again, ban the use of all motorized leaf blowers.
Elaine Sieker District 5