I was walking past a park this morning on the way to work.  A park worker was using a leaf-blower to clean things up.  I remember that some months ago, this same cleanup was done by a small team of people with brooms.  Today?  One guy with a very loud and messy machine.

Now, what's getting (and has gotten) measured here is no doubt certain cost-savings on the books of the park service; and from that point of view progress has been made.  But from the point of view of everyone walking past that stretch of park at that moment, the quality of life had without question been reduced.  It wasn't just a matter of the noise, but of dust and other crap (given that this is NYC, possibly literal crap) too, not to mention irritation and annoyance.  It was a genuinely unpleasant moment.

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