Subscribe | UPI Odd Newsletter Subscribe PALO ALTON, Calif., June 14 (UPI) -- A California city has decided that an already approved ban on gas-powered leaf blowers can take effect in two weeks. The Palo Alto City Council voted 7-1 to uphold the ban as landscapers who say the leaf blowers are vital to them and supporters of the ban packed the meeting, the San Jose Mercury News reported. Advertisement The newspaper said that the split separated working class Hispanics from the middle-class residents of Palo Alto. "Please don't make outlaws out of honest, hard-working people," Juan Carlos Prado, the executive director of the Bay Area Gardeners Association, begged the council. On the other side, a therapist testified that leaf blowers are so loud and dirty they could cause post-traumatic stress disorder. Palo Alto police, who would have to enforce the ban, appear to be unenthusiastic. In a report, they said that similar ordinances in other California municipalities are not often enforced and suggested that electric blowers, with a high-pitched whine, may be more annoying than gas-powered ones.
