Greetings!
After 7 years of working with the city and county to phase out gas leaf blowers, and thanks to your support and advocacy, we are on the verge of passing an ordinance in Portland to accomplish our goals of protecting the health of our workers and residents and making Portland a safer and quieter community. On Wednesday, March 6th, the Portland City Council will be presented with an ordinance to equitably phase out the use of gas leaf blowers in Portland. Please see the attachments below for the detailed ordinance language.
This will be our last chance to make our voices heard to ensure this ordinance passes!
Please join us in person at the City Council meeting (March 6th, 2:00 PM), wearing a blue top (shirt, dress, sweater, jacket) to show solidarity in support of the proposed ordinance. You can sign up to testify if you would like to do so, but just being there wearing blue is the most important thing you can do to show the city council your support for this ordinance. Here’s a link to get you to the meeting:
https://www.portland.gov/council-clerk/1900-building
We also encourage you to send a written message to urge the council to pass the ordinance. You will be able to submit written testimony starting on March 1
st when the agenda for the March 6
th meeting will be posted. Here is the link to submit testimony:
https://www.portland.gov/council/agenda
If we can fill the room with supporters wearing blue, it will make a big statement. It’s also a chance to meet your fellow advocates in person and to celebrate our success in getting this ordinance before the city council.
It is overwhelmingly clear that the public is asking for gas leaf blowers to be phased out. When public comments were solicited by the city, 86% of the 786 commenters supported a prohibition of gas leaf blowers and only 11% opposed it in any way.
We have worked with staff on many iterations of the ordinance to make it as strong and equitable as possible, and while the final proposal includes a start date that is later than we had pushed for, your comments and support helped us to make the final details of the ordinance stronger by:
- Shortening the wet leaf season exemption period to 3 months instead of 4
- Eliminating the one-year grace periods in 2026 and 2028, which starts enforcement earlier
- Making penalties for violation more significant for repeat offenders
- Starting the education and outreach period sooner
- Providing incentives to help small businesses with the transition
We are deeply grateful for your advocacy and support on this issue and for making your voice heard. Please help us with one final push to get this ordinance passed.
Here’s to a quieter, cleaner, and healthier Portland!
The QCPDX Steering Committee
Michael Hall, Albert Kaufman, Stan Penkin, Brian Stewart, Judy Walton, Tamara Olcott – the Quiet Clean PDX Steering Committee
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