I don't think it phases in fast enough, tbh, but it's a start. Someone the next block over from me runs their leaf blower around 7 AM everyday and it is godawful noise -- the sound carries at least 2 or 3 blocks in every direction
And of course, they'd begin their work promptly at 8 AM, and it always felt like they would spend extra time blowing leaves right outside my window.
But yes, 2-stroke lawn-care engines are egregious offenders in the climate and air quality battles. At least make it all electric like CA's been doing.
This just seems like such an obvious class divide thing to me. Those guys out there with the leaf blowers are working their ass off, sorry it's loud for a few minutes per day.
So is the real answer pay them better and have them use rakes?
It's more than a few minutes. Often times it goes up to a full hour, and it's usually super early in the morning, waking up a bunch of people. Each apartment complex will bring them in at different times, and now people who work late just have to have their sleep interrupted.
> This just seems like such an obvious class divide thing to me.
Why? People who are forced to work late, btw, are usually not upper class. And it's not like we won't want clean streets. If anything, this efficiency decrease will create more jobs for landscaping folks. It will also be less of a nuisance for everyone.
Ignoring the environmental aspect I think limited use in suburban settings is reasonable. I'm particularly focused on egregious use in urban settings when we aren't talking fall leaf collection but constant "cleaning". Obviously it's not the workers fault... it's a matter of mis-priced negative externalities. Napkin math say the noise makes 100 people WFH 10% less effective for an hour at say $50hr wage average it certainly makes more sense to just pay workers to work twice as long with brooms (if the work is even necessary in the first place).