"A Dark Reality 03-11-12" Let's help With a little Reporting

Steven Henderson's Sunday Free Press editorial reported on darkness in his neighborhood, one of Detroit's more upscale neighborhoods. He said that every year for three years the Mayor has assured us that the lights would be repaired. However, i think the situation is more widespread than ever.
What can you report?

Here's mine:

1. Streetlights on Junction between Fort St. and Michigan Ave. [[about two miles) have been out for years.
2. On Fort St. west from Junction to Springwells [[about 1 mile)the street lights are currently out
3. Over in Hubbard Farms, the street lights have been out on West Grand Blvd for more than a year. Last Spring the Director of Public Lighting attended a meetings and said they would be repaired and back on by end of summer.

I wonder if more of the Free Press reporters lived in the city, would prolonged streetlight blackouts in high profile areas get more attention in the Free Press reporting? I know Mr. Henderson lives in the city, as well as Jeff Gerritt, but the only time I see the streetlight issue mentioned is either in an editorial or as a substory to another event [[like a robbery or murder). I know there was a fairly in depth article about a turkey running loose around Commerce Twp. Maybe they can take a little time out of their Pulitzer chase to enlighten us all on the details of Detroit's lack of proper lighting?

Lafayette Park streetlights have been out for over a year.

I don't live in the city and I know all about the number of street lights not working. It only takes one trip into the city at night and you can get a good read on it. What could would reporting on it do anyways? It's not like someone is just forgetting to flip a switch. The city doesn't have any money.

Woodward between Calvert and West Grand is been out lately. Lots of folk walk in the street on Woodward. It's a wonder know one has been hit on this busy street. Hamilton's light are out too, but that's mostly a Highland Park thing......

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by rjk

I don't live in the city and I know all about the number of street lights not working. It only takes one trip into the city at night and you can get a good read on it. What could would reporting on it do anyways? It's not like someone is just forgetting to flip a switch. The city doesn't have any money.

---

Reporting on it is their job. It doesn't matter if the city doesn't have the money. The Free Press should report on it until the city figures out where to get the money for it. If I were running a newspaper in Detroit I'd have a story about the street lights being out for as long as the streetlights are out. I'd keep a count of the number of days since the entire city was properly illuminated. If the wheel won't squeak then the wheel won't get greased.

If the state and feds want to help with public safety, not to mention keeping people from leaving the city thereby increasing revenue, this might be a good place to start.

For those who live in SW Detroit, have you tried calling State Rep. Rashida Tlaib's district office? She helps out with these types of issues. The number is 1-313-841-2240.

The lights along Outer Drive from Grand River to I-96/Schoolcraft have been out for months. That's what... 3 miles?

I heart the D - help compile the list! the Free Press doesn't have spotters - we do.
So we have
the three SW Detroit areas that I reported;
Lafayette Park neighborhood
Woodward btw Calvert & West Grand Blvd; and
three miles of lights out on Outer dr. between Grand River and Schoolcraft.

Anything else? Surely there's more or else that lights are out in Detroit might be an urban myth.

Lights have been out at Cass and MLK for about 2 years now

No lights at 2nd and Selden

No lights on Van Dyke in multiple areas, sometimes they're on

Lights out on Prentis between 2nd and Cass

That's just off the top of my head based on the last couple weeks of walking and driving around

Getting somewhere! Getting bigger - Stephen Henderson sometimes comes here. If we provide the unexpurgated list, maybe they can use their bully pulpit.

Short list of frequently travelled routes I usually notice.

Evergreen from Grand River to Schoolcraft. Off for the better part of the last two years.

Woodstock in Green Acres. Out since last spring. Neighborhood Assoc. is encouraging residents to use porchlights at night, most are complying.

McNichols, Woodward to Oakland, then on to the freeway, then back off from I-75 to Conant.

Well as long as the lights on Second and Selden are on, all is well in the city. :D

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by rjk

I don't live in the city and I know all about the number of street lights not working. It only takes one trip into the city at night and you can get a good read on it. What could would reporting on it do anyways? It's not like someone is just forgetting to flip a switch. The city doesn't have any money.

---

Citizens who pay taxes to Detroit don't want to hear "the city doesn't have any money."

Would you want to hear from the Federal Government "We don't have any money to fix the highways, and we're going to allow half of them to crumble" if you were paying your hard-earned tax dollars to them every year? Or if you were retired and receiving Social Security, would you want the Federal Government to decide that it won't be sending out SS checks to half of the receipients no longer and you just so happen to be one of the receipients that will no longer receive the SS checks after you've paid your hard-earned tax dollars into the system for decades?

Portions of the Davison have been selectively on and off for a while now. I think it's only once every blue moon when the entire stretch from the Freeway transition to Van Dyke is on.

7 Mile from Outer Drive to Hoover is out too.

The other outages, as far as I remember, have simply been out in rotation.

Thanks WX for bringing the other "option," that being the rotational outages. Even those it seems are out for longer stretches at a time.

Just another statement on the not-functioning city: we think of the ones in rotation as

"working, but turned off for three weeks"


I have also assumed it as a given, that if all the streetlights actually were working and turned on at the same time, DPL wouldn't be able to handle the demand, which would mean no school tomorrow, since DPL powers all the schools [[and traffic lights, and campus, and the cultural center, and downtown...............):eek:

Its just plain unacceptible that street lights are out in the city they way they are. We have major problems when any administration accepts this situation as allowable. I love my Lafayette Park neighborhood but the fact that we have had no lights in front of our 1300 building,, with a very, very busy road in front of it is crazy. I can't tell you how many times I have almost hit someone crossing the street in dark clothing not even looking at cars. let alone the danger factor of anyone walking in the dark . The ridiculous reply that the city cannot afford to fix the lights , after these years , is crazy.. Actually, they cant afford not too. All it is going to take is for a pedestrian crossing getting killed by an innocent driver, and a resultant law suit for millions of dollars against the city for negligence of taking due care for lighting. These suits will cost way more than the cost of repairing our areas. This is just plain unacceptable.

various lights are always off down the length of Livernois..

Lights on Vernor between Mt Elliot & St Jean mostly haven't worked for years. Only one street light on our block that works. Fotunately neighbors provide private lighting including us. We all leave porch lights on and many of us have gas lights and motion detector lights in our front yards, back yards and alleys.

Thinking we should get a nominal tax credit for this service privately provided.