Mailbag: Leaf blowers are worst noise in Newport

We live in a noisy location and accept the sirens, car alarms, patrons leaving restaurants and bars, only to stand in the alley talking or arguing afterward. We even manage to go back to sleep and accept the occasional car crashing over dividers on the highway and the weekend motorcycles.

These are all normal noises associated with living in an urban environment. The obnoxiousness of leaf blowers far exceed any of the above for detracting from our quality of life. Even the JWA jets pale in comparison, though we are not directly under their path.

Please, the leaf blowers must go. Please impose a complete ban on the use of gas-powered blowers in Newport Beach. No exceptions.

Dennis and Diane Baker

Corona del Mar

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City needs ban more than anything

Thank you for covering this item. I can think of nothing that would improve the city of Newport Beach more than a ban on leaf blowers.

Iryne Black

Newport Beach

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Appoint McEvoy to council

Former council candidate Chris McEvoy is absolutely right (“Mailbag: McEvoy asks to be drafted,” Nov. 16)! There should be no special election, and he should be the person appointed to fill the remaining term of outgoing Councilwoman Katrina Foley. That is the only way there will be a free thinking person on the City Council. We definitely do not need another Republican. We need someone who will insist on an open discussion of questions facing the city. As it is, we have only one point of view represented once Foley is gone.

Susan Shaw

Costa Mesa

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Legalize marijuana, but control it

There is a big difference between condoning marijuana use and protecting children from drugs (“It’s A Gray Area: It always comes back to values,” Nov. 14). Decriminalization acknowledges the social reality of marijuana and frees users from the stigma of life-shattering criminal records. What’s really needed is a regulated market with age controls.

Separating the hard and soft drug markets is critical. As long as organized crime controls marijuana distribution, consumers will continue to come into contact with sellers of hard drugs like cocaine, meth and heroin. This “gateway” is a direct result of marijuana prohibition.

Marijuana prohibition has failed. The U.S. has higher rates of marijuana use than the Netherlands, where marijuana is legally available. It makes no sense to waste tax dollars on failed policies that finance organized crime and facilitate the use of hard drugs. Drug policy reform may send the wrong message to children, but I like to think the children are more important than the message.

Robert Sharpe

Common Sense for Drug Policy

Washington, D.C.

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Federal forecasts are off base

Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke (and his predecessor Alan Greenspan) are both very book-smart economists. They explain things away with Fed-speak terminology and economic theory. But like the weatherman who predicts a sunny day, if he would only step outside he would see that it is actually pouring rain and the sky is falling.

Steve M. Stec

Newport Beach