A letter to the editor written by Albert Kaufman and published in Lookout Eugene-Springfield back in August wondered if Lane County would follow Portland’s lead on banning gas-powered leaf blowers.

I would like to belatedly respond.

Kaufman was instrumental in advocating for the phased-in ban of gas-powered leaf blowers now in place in Portland. I divide my time between Eugene and Portland, so I’ve experienced the difference firsthand.

Portland is, as Kaufman describes, surprisingly and wonderfully quiet. I hear birds, and kids playing, and occasional traffic noise. I do not have to hear the deafening noise pollution from gas-powered leaf blowers. Electric ones are in use, and they make about as much noise as a small vacuum cleaner. My allergies are also better without the dust, feces and pollen that gas-powered blowers force into the air. That quality of life is a revelation.

Eugene, where there is no effective regulation, is a stark contrast. I’m woken up Sunday mornings at 7 a.m. by landscapers using gas-powered blowers. I often come home from work on weekdays to the same noise. Gasoline fumes linger long after the landscapers leave.

This is a human-created quality-of-life problem, and policy options exist to address it. Portland City Council has acted. Eugene City Council has not.

I am not kidding about that last part. The Eugene Sustainability Commission issued a memo to City Council last year outlining policy options and urgently recommending council members address this concern.

I contacted my ward representative pointing to this memo and inquiring what action he was taking. It took several emails to get a response, which was (and I am quoting) that “concerns are infrequent and in low numbers.”

That response made me incredibly angry. Communities should not have to accept excessive noise and pollution when workable alternatives and policy options exist.

City Council members are publicly elected, and have a responsibility to take community concerns seriously. Continued use of gas-powered leaf blowers is detrimental to the quality of life for town residents and employees of landscaping companies alike, yet Eugene City Council has failed to meaningfully address this.

Portland demonstrated that communities do not have to accept this kind of noise and pollution as inevitable. Thank you, Albert Kaufman, for helping prove that change is possible. It is past time for Eugene’s elected leaders to do the same.

Elizabeth Linstrom
Eugene