Orinda "No Blow" Summit Attracts National Attention

A number of grass roots efforts got their start around a kitchen table or in a family room - and ended up changing the way we do things in America.  One of those gatherings took place at a modest Orinda home this weekend - with a New Yorker magazine writer on hand to see what all the fuss was about.

Lamorinda Patch has covered, both in our new incarnation and in our previous life as EastBayDaze, the efforts of Orindans Susan and Peter Kendall and a small coterie of neighbors and associates campaigning against what they regard is the unnecessary noise and pollution created by the use of leaf blowers in their community.

While many approve of their message, they have also been subjected to "I'll surrender my blower when you take it from my lifeless hand" rhetoric and critics who regard their effort as needlessly invasive and yet another example of the "nanny state" mentality.

Not so, say the Kendalls, who are trying to get the word out about the science behind their proposed ban on the whirring blowers.  They met with a small, invited group of like-minded individuals this weekend, and engaged passersby in a lively exchange of views and information at the Orinda Farmers' Market.

"It has been a whirlwind effort, with support both expected and unexpected, and some pretty vehement opposition - both expected and unexpected," Peter Kendall told Lamorinda Patch.  "The New Yorker did send a writer out to see what we are up to.  It suggests, to us at least, that there's an underlying national interest in the issue."

More than a dozen people were on hand for the Saturday afternoon meeting, the man from The New Yorker spending the weekend interviewing the Kendalls and their guests - who included Diane Wolfberg, an advocate with Zero Air Pollution (Zap) in Los Angeles, and David Lighthall, a health scientist with the San Joaquin Valley Air Pollution Control District.

"It was great to meet these people, some for the first time," Peter said.  "Some traveled great distances to take part (Steve Davies, who has organized efforts to ban blowers in his Washington, D.C. suburb of Takoma Park, tried to make the meeting but was frustrated by travel delays).  Tad Friend, staff writer for The New Yorker, spent the weekend."

On the agenda for the weekend were plans to "marshal resources and expertise; divide the myriad tasks and assign them" and to "create a comprehensive, irrefutable argument for the ban of debris blowers," Peter said.

"It's a lot of work and we did a lot of brainstorming."

So far, the Marin County cities of Mill Valley, Tiburon, and Belvedere all ban blowers.  Individuals like the Kendalls and organized groups are seeking bans or limitation in Sonoma, Healdsburg, Ukiah, and Sebastapol.