Rye Leaves Blow Into Wall Street Journal

Folks seem to be pretty interested in how the 15,000 of us interact with our leaves. After the New York Times reported on how we send big trucks with our leaves all over the Northeast, The Wall Street Journal ran an item on leaf blowers, new less noisy models and various efforts by government to limit the use of the devices because of noise and pollution. In the piece, the Journal singles out Rye as a bellwether because of our new leaf blower ban:

"For years, noisy — and pollution-spewing — leaf blowers have served as a source of morning aggravation and have spawned endless quarrels among neighbors… In the Northeast in 2008, cities including Yonkers, N.Y., and Rye, N.Y., citing noise and environmental concerns, banned leaf blowers for certain months out of the year and set noise limits for the machines. Such ordinances have already proliferated in other parts of the country such as California. The landscape contractors association says 27 cities in the state — including Los Angeles, Palo Alto and Menlo Park — have passed leaf-blower bans or restrictions."