Golden Ginko Leaves
January 23, 2010Willow Glen, decades in the future
August 9, 2009San Jose City Council is already giving away public parkland to private interests. Next step is to eliminate open space requirements so that developers can build higher density. This also has the added benefit (to developers) of making more parkland available for development. Everybody happy?
Hiring a Building Contractor
February 21, 2009Wednesday’s presentation at the Willow Glen Branch Library by Dan Mackey, past president of the National Association of the Remodeling Industry, was very informative. He gave us a list of steps to take before signing a remodeling contract.
Your choice of contractor can make a big difference. You don’t want someone who is never there to supervise the work; just hands it off to his day laborers.
For instance, when adding a room to your home, after the foundation’s been dug, you will find it aggravating to have hired someone who has no care about construction except getting paid.
Wind Power at Home
May 30, 2007You can look into your neighbors backyards from Google Earth. It’s not easy to see all the clotheslines, however. Actually, mine might be the only one. Never had a clothes dryer. What for? There’s always time to let the rainy days pass.
Street-wide Yard Sales
May 11, 2007Shouldn’t we have these every Spring? (Clean out the garage, make room for more junk!)
Leaf Blowers
May 7, 2007Yesterday, while riding my bicycle on the street, I was distracted by a kid with a leaf blower. He had it aimed at me, so I was about to move into the middle of the street when a speeding car passed close by me. Usually, I would have heard the car coming up behind me, but, as you know, leaf blowers are deafening. I could have gotten run over!
Many communities have banned the use of leaf blowers. Leaf blowing is ubiquitous in many communities. Spend an afternoon riding around on your bicycle and just see if you don’t get dirt blown into your face. The noise is penetrating, too. If you worked at home, like many people now do, you’d get the noise and dust from all directions, not only from yards on either side but from across the street and sometimes from blocks away. These are not the neighbors per se using these machines, but young boys employed by yard services.
What would I have to do to get the City to consider banning the use of leaf blowers?
P.S. The infernal racket is outside my window as I write this. I’ll stop what I’m doing to shut all the windows, but I don’t think it’s my job to personally confront all of the noise and pollution offenders.

Posted by macenable 

