Letters

Many years ago, my wife, Nina, and I decided to sell our loft in downtown Manhattan and move to Bridgehampton, where we had a little summer house that we purchased in 1991. The idea of living and working full time in the country was very appealing, and I thought it was going to be fabulous.

It was a dream-come-true life that unfortunately didn’t last long.

Mitchell Lane used to be a country road. Now, the traffic, particularly in the summer, is quite intense.

The old farmhouses are mostly gone. Mitchell Lane is very desirable for New Yorkers, and new “mega homes” with gardens designed to mimic Versailles, the residence of the kings of France, were built in a very short period of time. High fences are now dividing each property, with square-cut privet and long driveways with white gates.

The countryside has become suburbia. The sound of nature is being replaced by the sound of leaf blowers, the most horrific invention, part of the gardener’s “arsenal” — it’s the equivalent of a terrible weapon. A horrible machine that pollutes not just the air, with their loud gasoline motors and exhaust, but also our ears, obliterating the beautiful “whoosh” sound of the wind that moves through the leaves.

Early in the morning, we wake up to the horrible sound of gardening machinery that travels across the landscape. If it’s not the house next door then it’s the house down the road, or the one across the field. It is happening right at this moment while I am writing.

They’re destroying the environment, when green technology and electric tools are available. Men are carrying the motor on their backs, and the blower is in their hands like a machine gun, and they are senselessly blowing the grass from one place to another for hours and hours, nonstop, for six, sometimes seven, days a week.

Where are the homeowners of those properties? Don’t they care about the noise and pollution?

I heard that East Hampton already banned the use of the leaf blower, a diabolical invention. Why aren’t there similar laws in Bridgehampton and Southampton? We should abolish this insanity and return some peace to our world.

There is a total lack of respect for the neighbors who are suffering day by day. The system is totally abused.

In these days of isolation, which requires us to work from home, we should be able to relax and enjoy what nature is offering us: beautiful summer days under the sun, the beach, the ocean — and the tranquility of our home.

Giancarlo Impiglia

Bridgehampton