Dear Mayor Dear,
This morning, I took my car into Midas on Carson for an oil
change and checkup. I expected to wait a half hour or so, but was told it would
be a couple of hours. So I grabbed my Kindle and camera, and set off for a walk
around the neighborhood, thinking I would walk, read, get a cup of coffee and
basically kill a couple of hours. Which I did, quite pleasantly.
After a while, I came to Carson Park. I thought I would stop
there and read a bit. It was early and the park was almost empty. Three women
were walking, chatting in Spanish. A city worker was going over the park with a
leaf blower. A noisy, energy consuming leaf blower. Too noisy to sit and read.
I decided to walk on.
I’m a tax and spend Democrat, happy to see my tax dollars
and the people they employ at work. But I couldn’t help noticing that the areas
the man had gone over with the leaf blower didn’t look noticeably different
than the areas he hadn’t got to yet.
One of the women from the trio of walkers came past me
alone.
“Excuse me,” I said. “I don’t mean to bother you. But what
do you think of that?” I pointed to the leaf-blowing worker. She said that she
and her friends were talking about that, how annoying it was, and unnecessary. Just
what I think, too.
I’m not complaining about the worker. I’m sure he is
following his department’s procedure. But I am wondering if this procedure
needs to be reviewed.
On a planet with unlimited resources, this would be only
annoying and wasteful. But on our planet, where our thoughtless habits of
consumption and pollution threaten the health and security of generations to
come, this thoughtless, kneejerk behavior is harmful and should be reviewed.
As I thought about, I began to wonder how widespread this
culture of wasteful fuel consumption is in our city. I realized that a huge
gas-guzzling street cleaner goes by my house every Monday morning, leaving the
appearance and cleanliness of the street virtually unchanged. I bet this could
be reduced to alternate weeks instead of weekly without having any noticeable
impact on the appearance and livability of the city.
I wonder if it would be worthwhile to convene a committee to
study the practices of all city departments with the goal of making the city
more environmentally friendly. In the park example, maybe a review could lead
to decreasing the frequency of leaf-blowing, if not eliminating it entirely,
which would save money, improve the quality of life (walking in the park
without industrial noise), and decrease our impact on the environment.
Wouldn’t that be good?
Peter Rashkin
