Keeping Immigrants Safe

If you want to help immigrants during these difficult times...

  1. Leave the leaves. Blow less often. Fall leaves, coating our beautiful city's properties, are a gorgeous and natural part of the seasons. There is no need to blow a property more than twice in a season. This saves workers a lot of time on the properties.
  2. Mulch the leaves. Most kinds of leaves can simply be mulched when mowing the lawn, acting as fertilizer. This can save time on the property.
  3. Temporarily let workers blow leaves into the street, with Evanston regularly collecting leaves, and keeping drains open. Many cities already do this. It would be an inconvenience for homeowners who will see parking tickets increase, and would require city budget approval, but it will certainly provide workers with much less time on a property in the fall.
  4. If called for, provide direct basic support so immigrants can simply stay home at times of greatest risk.

There is no evidence that running gas leaf blowers keeps immigrants safe

  1. Announcing landscape workers from a half mile away with 105dB Leaf Blower scream does not make them safe. On the contrary, it directly attracts attention to them and pinpoints their location.
  2. The newer, powerful 800+ CFM electric blowers are equivalent to running gas blowers so there can be no valid claim of needing gas blowers for "less time on the property." (Note: Some landscapers purchased lower power Stihl devices that also use the most expensive batteries.)
  3. Showing insensitivity to the health and well-being of our community (and especially our 14,000 children) by needlessly running obnoxiously loud and polluting leaf blowers can make residents angry. There are thousands of us in this city with immigrants in our families. We are already highly stressed. We don't need raging leaf blowers running all over our city adding to our troubles!

Insulation from police action has already been in place for four years

  1. First, if you don't want to get in trouble for breaking the law, don't break it. This is simple.
  2. All leaf blower calls have been routed to the 311 center for almost four years. There is zero police involvement. The complaint ends up on the desk of a public health employee who sends out the equivalent of a parking ticket a week or two later.
  3. The city has agreed simply to send the ticket to the homeowner (which they have always done anyway, if they can't find the landscaper), who can then work it out later with their landscaper. This completely insulates the landscaper from any part of the official process.
  4. To report a complaint now, residents only need the date, the time and the address. No interaction with the landscaper, or the owner is needed or recommended.