Gail Pellet and her husband, Stephan Van Dam. "We all became driven insane by this noise," Pellet says.Jeremy Garretson for BIWhen Charles Leak and his wife purchased his home in East Hampton, they thought they'd found an oasis of quiet. Far away from their Tribeca apartment in the Near Northwest Woods, a neighborhood known for its secluded calm, their contemporary saltbox style sits back on a one-acre lot, surrounded by Japanese cedars and bamboo.About five years after he moved in, the leaf blower roars started."You know what a chainsaw sounds like? These are louder. Usually, there are multiple. It becomes a symphony," Leak, who has worked as a contractor and a fine artist, tells me. "It's quieter in the city."Leak and many other East Hampton residents say leaf blowers have instilled a reign of terror in their idyllic hamlet, home to the summer estates of billionaires like Barry Rosenstein and Len Blavatnik. They're far from alone. From Palm Beach to Aspen, homeowners say they're being plagued by the near-constant hum and toxic hiss of these motorized monsters. Most commercial blowers burn a mixture of oil and gas and release as much as 30% of their unburned fuel into the air. And they're not just whirring in the spring. With wealthy homeowners hungry for bigger lawns and ultra-manicured landscaping, more homes have hired weekly or twice-weekly crews, year-round.Charles Leak, photographed at home with his electric leaf blower, came to East Hampton for quiet. Now, he says, it's louder than his Tribeca apartment.Jeremy Garretson for BIDriving down his street, Leak points out each house and its noisiness. One property's owner employs landscapers who work until 8 p.m.; another has multiple leaf blowers running at once."We should have bought it way back just to keep it quiet," he says, pointing to the neighboring lot. Leak, who eschews traditional grass in favor of moss, has his landscaper use good old-fashioned rakes and gives a $200 tip for the extra effort.How do we get people to stop thinking of their lawn as their living room rug?Edwina von Gal, landscape designerHis neighbors have organized against the cacophony. The pages of The East Hampton Star are riddled with articles and letters to the editor about the issue. In East Hampton, gas leaf blowers have been prohibited between May 20 and September 20 since 2021, but local groups say the enforcement is virtually nonexistent. The town's ordinance enforcement department received 140 calls related to leaf blowers last year, and 133 the year prior.Now, some are pushing for a year-round ban on gas-powered blowers. It would be a costly switch. Customers, no matter how rich, don't want to swallow a price increase by switching to pricier electric blowers, local landscapers say, and with private equity firms hoovering up mom-and-pop landscaping shops, the bottom line is emphasized now more than ever.Across America, leaf blowers have become a political lightning rod: More than 200 cities and several states have issued bans or restrictions on gas-powered leaf blowers. The pursuits of two different bourgeois dreams — a perfect lawn or quietude — are at war."It's about privilege and what constitutes privilege these days," says Setha Low, an East Hampton homeowner and anthropology professor at the City University of New York. "Very wealthy people want to control their environment."Behind the gates and hedges, East Hampton homeowners favor lawns that require near-constant care.Jeremy Garretson for BIEven on a rainy day in May, East Hampton's landscapers are busy prepping for the summer season. Their trucks are all over town, stopped at red lights in front of the Louis Vuitton and Prada stores, and parked by eight- and nine-figure mansions.Outside Town Hall, Gail Pellet shows off a pollinator garden she and her husband, Stephan Van Dam, have tended through the ChangeHampton, an ecological organization they run together. In between pointing out flower species, she stops person after person to mention the group's latest initiative: abolishing gas leaf blowers for good.Everyone has an opinion: "They're disgusting and ridiculous," says one resident. "We can't enjoy this beautiful place," says another.Several residents say COVID-19 was when the clamor got unbearable. Summer and weekend people who migrated east to ride out the pandemic became exposed to the cacophony of spring and fall, when heavy-duty landscaping takes place. Trying to work, socialize, or think became impossible."We all became driven insane by this noise," Pellet says.Gail Pellet, the cofounder of ChangeHampton, is spearheading a petition to extend the gas leaf blower ban year-round.Jeremy Garretson for BIOne of Van Dam's favorite things about his time in East Hampton is access to Three Mile Harbor, where he swims every morning. Except on certain Thursdays, one of the busiest days for landscapers as they prep for weekend residents. The noise becomes intolerable, and the water turns murky."They come in like a h
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