Sound – very loud, awful, bad, cacophonous music, with no control by the listener – has historically been used as an effective means of psychological torture. In Lake Oswego, we have gas-powered leaf blowers, having the same effect.
Our City Council needs to get serious about banning gas-powered blowers before intelligent, sensitive residents begin to flee from this torture. We will lose great, productive people who contribute to our community and our economy. People who simply can’t tolerate being here because of the noise.
More than 200 towns and cities in the United States have banned gas blowers. Their outsized carcinogenic pollution is not the only reason. The other reason is that their noise is toxic, too. And what about our dogs and cats, who are even more sensitive to acoustic assaults?…