Detroit —Like many swaths of the city, Keith Wicks' historic Indian Village neighborhood has remained largely dark at night after vandals destroyed transformers in nearly every streetlight pole that powers them.
On a recent rainy day, Wicks, 64, a retired GM engineer who has lived in Detroit for decades, watched as city Public Lighting workers put new transformers at the top of the aging wooden poles. Just days later, those streetlights were out — again.
"We've still got a ways to go," Wicks said with a laugh.
The growing lack of public lighting has become a troubling problem for cash-starved Detroit, where entire stretches of neighborhoods and thoroughfares — such as portions of the Southfield Freeway — are feeling the effects.
"This city…it's dark without streetlights," said Wicks, who lives on Iroquois. "You look down Iroquois at night now, it's black. It's very dangerous."
The war to keep the lights on in Detroit is a serious one. Thieves, antiquated equipment and a lack of funding have made it impossible for city officials to catch up to the problem.
City officials estimate 15-20 percent of the 88,000 lights in the Motor City are not working, and they acknowledge that figure could be as high as 50 percent in some neighborhoods. Providing lighting to the city costs $10.7 million annually.
And often when they are fixed, they break down weeks and months later — or thieves steal the high-grade cable for its copper materials.
"It doesn't make me happy when I go into a neighborhood at night," said Chris Brown, the city's chief operation officer, who oversees the Public Lighting department. "We've got an obligation to get it done. In the next couple of years we will see a strong improvement of the lighting of those more dense areas, and that's where we're focused on, and that's what we've got to get done."
Mayor Dave Bing and his administration are considering privatizing the lighting department. DTE, which already provides electricity to the majority of the city's streetlights, has been weighing a possible takeover.
Plans are in the works for the city to prioritize fixing or replacing lights over the next two years in more densely populated areas as part of its Detroit Works program, which focuses on improving services to specific areas of the shrinking city.
"The question is, does the city have resources to really do it, and the answer to that is probably no," Brown said. "And so the issue is, what are your options?"
Although there might be some areas of the city that might not be lit "because nobody lives there," the goal is to fix the lights where Detroiters live, Brown said.
“We’re sh*t and we know we are.”
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/0c73f10e-f8aa-11e0-ad8f-00144feab49a.html#axzz1b8EBd51m (http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/0c73f10e-f8aa-11e0-ad8f-00144feab49a.html#axzz1b8EBd51m)
“We’re sh*t and we know we are.”
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/0c73f10e-f8aa-11e0-ad8f-00144feab49a.html#axzz1b8EBd51m (http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/0c73f10e-f8aa-11e0-ad8f-00144feab49a.html#axzz1b8EBd51m)
I saw that article last night and declined to read it. He can KMA.