Leaf Blowers Redux!
The leaves will soon be doing their slow drift to the ground after soaking up carbon, cranking out oxygen and providing us with shade in the hot dry summer. And just as fast, the gas-powered leaf blowers will be roaring out to blast them off lawns, garden beds and sidewalks as if they are a scourge, a blemish on our tidy yards.
Each to their own when it comes to standards of tidiness, but as Dana Milbank wrote recently in the Washington Post, not removing leaves is hugely beneficial to insects. "Multiple studies show that the overall insect population is declining by 1% to 2% per year, which means losing perhaps a third of all insects on the planet within 20 years — moving us toward what’s often called an ‘insect apocalypse.’”
Most people, including me, see bugs as annoying and think less would be more. But, Milbank continues, “It’s hard to overstate how ruinous this could be. If this mass extinction of insects isn’t reversed, it will decimate the entire food chain, threaten crop pollination and generally cause havoc. Some bird and mammal populations are already shrinking even faster than the bugs are.”
Far more damaging than over raking, and not just to insects, are gas-powered leaf blowers, as I wrote in the June 2023 issue of the Hill & Lake Press.
If you are interested in working on a city ordinance to ban gas-powered blowers and other lawn tools, something that over 150 municipalities in the nation have already done, please contact Philip Lowry at Philipwlowry@yahoo.com, or Susan Lenfestey at susan@hillandlakepress.org.
Hennepin Avenue Plan Walks, Rolls and Rides On
In the June Issue of the Hill & Lake Press I wrote an open letter to Mayor Frey asking him to put the Hennepin Avenue makeover plan on hold given the debacle of the Bryant Avenue redo and other changes to the city since the plan’s inception over five years ago.
An open letter doesn’t really warrant a response, but I had hopes of getting one and writing about it here. My hopes aren’t totally dashed, but they’re fading.
To be fair, it’s late in the process to push pause. And the plan was hatched before this mayor became the mayor, and before Margaret Anderson Kelliher became the Director of the Department of Public Work. She and Mayor Frey deserve credit for vetoing the 24/7 bus lanes which would have fully removed 93% of on-street parking. Lisa Goodman and other moderates on the City Council also deserve credit for upholding the veto. But moving ahead with a flawed plan because the funding is approved often has dire consequences.
The lack of response from the mayor and some “rescheduled” meetings with city staff have led me to the sad conclusion that we are stuck with this plan, the brainchild of the bike lobbyist and former City Council President Lisa Bender, who has since moved to Minnetonka.
Bender and others behind the plan are not wrong about the need to eliminate carbon emissions. But instead of embracing solutions that are based in the technology of the future they seem to be stuck in the past. Countries as diverse as Norway and India are rapidly converting to electric vehicles. The Biden administration has announced it is providing $12 billion in grants and loans to help automakers convert their current manufacturing facilities into facilities capable of producing electric vehicles.
And the best Minneapolis can do is invest in more bike lanes?
My fear is that the plan is deeply flawed and will create congestion and more carbon emissions and crush businesses, forcing them to follow Lisa Bender to the suburbs.
In fact, Cafe Meow, a coffee shop, has just announced plans to move from Hennepin Avenue to a new location in Roseville, citing the removal of parking as a factor in the decision.
I hope I’m wrong about all of this. I hope someone in city government might still pause the plan. And if no one does, I hope we wind up with a beautiful tree-lined, business-friendly promenade. With a few unicorns thrown in for good measure.
In the meantime, let’s patronize those businesses, by bike, on foot, or whatever rolls your ride.
