We are back to the gas-powered leaf blowers. Recall Bill 18-22, signed into law on October 9, 2023, prohibits the sale of gas-powered leaf blowers by July 1, 2024, and use of such equipment by July 1, 2025. Council Member Gabe Albornoz was the only dissenting vote at the time. Here we are, two weeks after the deadline for prohibiting the use of gas blowers, and there are discussions, and pending legislation, to add additional exemptions to the law.
Montgomery County Media reported on a recent hearing regarding the blower ban and its potential delay in enforcement. At that hearing residents and businesses described how the ban impacts them. One affirmation of the ban struck me as very unfair.
Some residents talked about not being able to work at home due to the loud noises from the gas-powered leaf blowers.
I’m one of those remote workers. Trust me, I know what it’s like to stare at a laptop screen, keep focus, attend Zoom meetings, and then out of nowhere a gardener’s leaf blower starts playing a high-decibel version of The Little Caterpillar’s intestines after eating too much junk food. It’s disrupting. It’s annoying.
I then look at the laborer outside. He’s working in real-feel 106℉ weather, carrying a 22 lb. blower on his back, and incurring 75 dB noise. I’m sitting in an air-conditioned home office palming an 8 ounce cup of coffee. Who has the worse deal? He does, not I.
Apparently some remote workers want to maintain their lifestyle by forcing that laborer to use an electric blower. He will then need to carry more weight (with a battery) and work longer hours because the electric units are less powerful than the gas units. For any remote worker to inflict that kind of punishment on an outdoor laborer is somewhere between heartless and entitled.
CM Gabe Albornoz was right to oppose this very elitist and oppressive law, and he is right to introduce additional exemptions. The only thing missing is a complete repeal of this ethnocentric nonsense. Not everyone can enjoy the work-at-home lifestyle, and not all gardeners buy into the electric-blower utopia.
The best way to address everyone’s concerns is with consensus. If you are a remote worker (one of the few remaining), ask the gardener when he uses the gas blower in your area, and adjust your routine accordingly. That is a much more compassionate and enduring approach than forcing everyone in the county to adapt to your behavioral requirements. There are plenty of ways to resolve differences other than legislation and criminalization.
The other fundamental problem with Bill 18-22 is its legitimacy. It does not apply to individual homeowners, MCPS, or Montgomery Parks; it does apply to private property, commercial property, local government and county government. Right here we have the scent of favoritism or discrimination. A law needs to be equally applied to everyone.
Bill 18-22 does not reflect well on the County Council. On this legislation’s effective date there are discussions about amending it. This situation proves that the legislation was enacted without regard to all parties involved. It was bullying by one group of residents forcing another group of residents to change. Functioning legislative bodies avoid this level of coercion.
