‘How to Stop Gas-Powered Blowers’
This is the all the information you need, including how you can help:
The Administrative Citation Enforcement Program (ACE) was established by the LA City Council in 2014. It was created to simplify the enforcement of violations of the LA Municipal Code.
Tickets are issued to a violator in place of probation, fines or jail, and there is no criminal record. Among the many violations to be cited are drinking in public, street vending, skating on sidewalks and using a gas-powered blower. (NO gas-powered blowers are exempt.)
This information is from an ACE Status Report from Michael Feurer’s office, October 16, 2018: “Agencies participating in ACE include the LAPD, Dept. of Animal Services, Dept. of Parks and Rec and the Bureau of Street Services. Together they have issued 32,156 citations. In the 2017-18 fiscal year, $1,175,568 was collected by ACE. The percentage of tickets is broken down by category. Leaf-blower violations are part of the 1.18% ‘miscellaneous offenses.’”
We know LAPD doesn’t have time to do the enforcement and leaf-blowers don’t have much to do with Park and Rec or Animal Services.
That leaves us with the Bureau of Street Services. They can ticket homeowners, gardeners or the owners of gardening companies who are breaking the law. The fine is $100.
According to Rita Hernandez-Venegas, Supervising City Attorney of ACE, the Dept. of Building and Safety is also part of ACE.
When questioned about whether Building and Safety would ticket leaf blowers, Rita wrote that it “will begin issuing cites possibly this summer but only for short-term rental violations.” That’s a start; but it’s not nearly enough enforcement.
There is one person who can change this situation: Councilmember Mike Bonin.
Mike needs to be convinced that gas-powered leaf blowers are poisoning our air and must to be eliminated from LA, the smoggiest city in the nation. Children, older people, folks with chronic illnesses and gardeners suffer the most from these blowers.
Mike must expand the ACE Ordinance through the City Council to make ticketing blowers by Street Services and/or Building and Safety a priority. He must work with fellow councilmembers to insure their “yes” vote.
The leaf blower ban was passed in 1998 because of how dangerous blowers are. A six-ton Raptor truck must drive 3,887 miles to equal the exhaust of a two-stroke gas blower being used for a half hour of yard work (from an Auto Club report). How insane is it that these deadly machines are still in use?!
Please email me at peppere@mac.com so we can get a group together to meet with Bonin and encourage him to protect our environment.
Pepper Edmiston
Trees
A couple of weeks ago, a disturbing event happened at the end of my street; three giant eucalyptus trees, trees that belonged to the city therefore trees that belonged to our community, were chopped down by a homeowner that didn’t want them there.
If you’ve been to the little park that sits at the end of the bluffs where Mount Holyoke Avenue and Via de las Olas converge, you would have admired the character of the trees that had been there for decades. You may have found shade from the hot sun under their canopy or enjoyed the sound of the rustle of leaves as the breeze blew.
These trees belonged to us, to the neighborhood. They were growing in the strip of land between the sidewalk and grass as they had for generations.
That is, they were until the homeowner on that corner decided to illegally remove those trees, presumably because it hindered their ocean view. No permits were pulled, no notification was given to neighbors.
We cannot let this kind of behavior continue unchecked. It is devastating when homeowners and developers in our affluent community come into a neighborhood with complete disdain for their neighbors and community, where they disregard laws and ordinances (not to mention basic respect) because they feel they are above such laws or are wealthy enough to deal with the consequences.
If someone stole a television from our house they would be arrested. If someone stole a car from our driveway they would be arrested. Why should a homeowner be allowed to steal trees from our community?
Please join me in calling the city to express our refusal to accept this selfish behavior.
Tom Costain
Wildfire
Instead of waiting for a wildfire to break out in Mandeville Canyon, or the Santa Monica Mountains, or the Palisades Highlands, inundate the trees, shrubs and fields of those areas with water and retardants before any fire begins … and no fires will begin!
True, this would cost millions, but isn’t that better then the billions of dollars which wildfires always cost? And there would be no more evacuations, loss of homes, loss of lives.
To defeat this evil force is in our power … let’s use it!
Philip Springer, PhD
Graduation Day
What’s the purpose of a local newspaper? I’d say the Palisadian-Post dropped the ball in its “coverage” of a major event that involved hundreds of local families … a page of photos but no reporting on Graduation Day at Pali High.
We learned a lot about the high price of Erewhon’s eggs, Adam Levine and a restaurant in Marina del Rey … but nothing of the Palisades’ proudest moment of the week.
Had the PP listed the grads, I would have bought 10 copies!
Sam Peters Marquez Knolls
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