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Dear Noise Project supporter,
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We’re sending this e-mail out to PNP’s main list because, though it’s obviously focused on leafblowers, it exemplifies the Providence City Council’s tendency to supersede the broader public interest of residents in favor of a small cohort of people — in this case, landscaping company owners and workers, most of whom don’t even live in the city — at their expense. We see this on a recurrent basis with noise-related issues, and other polices such as taxation. And it’s in full view in the proposed leafblower ordinance.
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Last Thursday, Oct. 2, the full City Council voted to advance Environment Committee Chair Sue AnderBois’ leafblower ordinance amendment to a second and final vote next Thursday, Oct. 16. The tally was 8–3, with AnderBois (Ward 3) and fellow Environment Committee members Pedro Espinal (Ward 10), Justin Roias (Ward 4), and Miguel Sanchez (Ward 6), along with Council President Rachel Miller (Ward 13), John Goncalves (Ward 1), Jo-Ann Ryan (Ward 5), and Shelley Peterson (Ward 14) voting in favor, and James Taylor (Ward 8), Althea Graves (Ward 12), and Oscar Vargas (Ward 15) voting against it. Mary Kay Harris (Ward 11) abstained, and Ana Vargas (Ward 7) and Juan Pichardo (Ward 9) were absent.
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The ostensible goal of the ordinance — to regulate and ultimately prohibit the use of unhealthy gas-burning leafblowers in the city — is one that most people support. Gas leafblowers’ inefficient two-stroke engines spew both excessive noise (85+ decibels, twice as loud as the sound limit) and other forms of toxic air pollution that endanger their operators and those living and working nearby. And they're all too often used for things other than landscaping, such as moving dirt and even water on driveways, sidewalks, parking lots, etc. They have long since become a unhealthy public nuisance.
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Hundreds of U.S. towns / cities / counties and even some states have already passed laws that regulate and ultimately prohibit the use of gas leafblowers. Doing the same in Providence should be a no-brainer — which is precisely why the issue has languished for so long), and why we initially commended AnderBois for taking action on the issue. The problem is that the amendment she pushed through her Environment Committee is fundamentally flawed, and has little to do with either the environment or public health.
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We have a detailed explanation on our website of why we cannot support AnderBois’ leafblower amendment, but in simple terms: 1) it takes way too long — nearly eight years from the ordinance introduction until leafblowers are prohibited — and like most noise-related regulations and policies in Providence, 2) there’s no meaningful enforcement mechanism, which means that even after it comes into effect in 2033(!), far too many people will still be using gas leafblowers as if there is no ordinance against doing so. Does that sound familiar to PVD residents exposed to noise on a daily basis?
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From what we can discern from the largely opaque process of drafting and revising the amendment, AnderBois and other Council members put the interests of landscaping company owners and workers — most of whom do not live in Providence and shouldn’t have any influence on regulations that affect the health and environment of those of us who actually do — ahead of the city’s long-suffering residents. She told Environment Committee members that she’d met with the RI landscaping lobby several times, and incorporated their demands into her ordinance. (Yet despite that, they still oppose it.)
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The Noise Project has always recommended a timeline that puts public health first by prohibiting the use of gas-fueled leafblowers within three years, including phased seasonal restrictions, though we were willing to accept a slightly longer transition period as a compromise. The city’s own sustainability director testified to the Environment Committee that the transition away from gas blowers should happen in six years, but it clearly ignored her. We also called for weekly restrictions (no use on Sundays and holidays), a sales ban to signal the transition, and a resident-driven enforcement option.
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Instead, the City Council opted for a preposterous eight-year transition, which seems at least partially designed to push the deadline of the eventual prohibition beyond the likely terms of most Council members — including AnderBois herself, who’s reportedly considering running for the General Assembly. It’s obviously easier for public officials to vote for things that will happen after they’re out of office or can’t run for re-election (see the city’s pension history).
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For these and other reasons detailed on our website, the Noise Project cannot support Councilmember AnderBois’ leafblower ordinance amendment as currently structured, and we urge our supporters and other Providence residents who want a healthier city to contact their Council representatives who voted in favor of it (or abstained / were absent) in the first full Council vote to tell them to vote against it in the second vote on Oct. 16 (next Thursday) — and for residents to clearly demonstrate their opposition to the amendment by submitting testimony opposing it to the City Clerk by Oct. 14 at 3:00 p.m. and also attending the meeting itself to testify against it in person.
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Eight years is simply too long for Providence residents — and the landscaping workers who live here — to wait until they can finally be free of the excessive and unnecessary noise and other toxic emissions from gas-burning leafblowers. The proposed ordinance amendment literally sacrifices residents’ and workers’ health and environment for the benefit of landscaping company owners and workers who live outside the city. If they insist on continuing to use polluting gas-fueled equipment, they’re free to do so in cities and towns outside of Providence.
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If you’d like to help us curtail gas leafblowers, please contact us and put “Leafblowers”
in the subject line. If you’d like to help reduce other sources of noise, please fill out our short volunteer intake form to tell us more about your background and experience, so we can best utilize the knowledge and skills of residents who drive the Noise Project.
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Thanks again for supporting a quieter, healthier, and more sustainable
Providence for all of its residents and visitors!
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“Noise is the New Smoking”
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