General Urban Waterloo Updates and Rumours

[danbrotherston]

I mean, I wouldn't call them "complaints" they are legitimate harms that gas leaf blowers create.

Whether you feel they are worth a ban (or some other policy) is a matter of opinion, but that they are harms, is not an opinion.

Just because they’re legitimate doesn’t mean they’re not complaints.

We may be too used to people complaining about bogus stuff like a second door on their neighbour’s house, or losing a lane for their car to good bicycle infrastructure. But there are lots of perfectly valid or at least colorable complaints.

I mean, yes, complaint often has an implication of flippancy or un-importance and I certainly was arguing this point in my statement. I didn't and still don't think we should frame it that way.

But I think there's a broader point. "Complaints" are things that people make, even if there was nobody anywhere complaining about leaf blowers, I think it would still make sense to consider policies to limit them because the harms still exist.

I very much fall on the "yes" side of "if a tree falls in the forest and there is nobody to hear it, does it make a sound".

I don't think it applies in this case (or generally in this forum) but the "nobody complained" response is a common way to ignore the interests of disadvantaged people.

So yeah, I still stand by what I suggest, words matter, even the ones we use here, where we all are generally reasonable.

Sorry, feeling preachy this morning for some reason.