DTE Reposses Highland Park Street Lights

[misstjohn1]

Watchin the news this morning and saw this story. Just wow.....

[Dexlin]

It's in the News, too. Yeah, wow was my first thought, too. How do you continue running a city when you're losing the most basic city services? With the continuous drop in property values, which even put strain on much larger communities with more taxable value, how in the world does Highland Park survive? It doesn't need another emergency financial manager, anymore. This isn't about misspent money; this is literally about there not being any money for city-wide lighting, anymore.

BTW, it kind of blows my mind that a city that was wealthy as Highland Park was at one time doesn't even own the light poles. The article makes mention that that is pretty unique. Some city leader way back dropped the ball. lol

[rjk]

http://detnews.com/article/20111011/...-Highland-Park

[Goose]

thye guy that turned in the cop asking for protection money might need more than a streetlight now...... but $650 every two weeks is steep... a window AC only cost around $300...

[Zacha341]

Goodness! Another reason to stay out of HP after dark! This is CRAZY! What is to become of this city?

http://detnews.com/article/20111011/...-Highland-Park

[Trumpeteer]

[QUOTE=Dexlin;277360BTW, it kind of blows my mind that a city that was wealthy as Highland Park was at one time doesn't even own the light poles. The article makes mention that that is pretty unique. Some city leader way back dropped the ball. lol[/QUOTE]

It's actually very common for the utility to retain ownership of both pole and light and simply charge a fee for them plus a flat charge for energy used.

[1953]

Don't worry. The mayor says crime happens during the day, so fewer street lights won't be a problem [[ha!).

Its time for Highland Park to revert to Highland Park Twp. or to merge with either Detroit or Hamtramck.

1953

[cman710]

Its time for Highland Park to revert to Highland Park Twp. or to merge with either Detroit or Hamtramck.

1953

I had the same thought. If the city cannot provide the most basic city services, it needs to be combined with another city that can - not that Detroit does great in the services department, either.

[Detroitnerd]

Consider Highland Park a laboratory for the concept of privatization. They tried it with the water utility, now DTE is pulling out. What were all those unkind words about DPL a few weeks ago?

Highland Park merging with Hamtramck? As somebody familiar with Hamtramck's woes, not sure how that would play out. You'd have to double the police and fire resources of Hamtramck and you'd have a much lower tax base...

[1953]

Detroitnerd, mine is a long term vision that encompasses the expansion of Hamtramck! Its would be a serious challenge today, but in the long term the city could gain some room to become the greatest city in history!

[Danny]

DTE took those fancy street lights from its ghettohoods since last summer. Execpt on Woodward Ave. Fewer streetlights were placed along John R Rd. Second, Third, Hamilton Rds. This is result of corrupt HP city council and its workers. And of course DTE as a the rich that takes its utilities from the poor. They have to make money to feed the bigger pigs in Wall Street.

[Detroitnerd]

So glad Gov. Granholm removed the competent person running HP and installed Democratic Party crony Art Blackwell... not ...

That was part of the problem, that Highland Park is seen as some Baltic Avenue property to dole out to political insiders... Ed McNamara would be proud ...

[kraig]

So glad Gov. Granholm removed the competent person running HP and installed Democratic Party crony Art Blackwell... not ...

That was part of the problem, that Highland Park is seen as some Baltic Avenue property to dole out to political insiders... Ed McNamara would be proud ...

That was part of the problem, that Highland Park is seen as some Baltic Avenue property to dole out to political insiders... Ed McNamara would be proud

Now that was clever. Good one.

[Dexlin]

Political corruption is a sideshow, at best, though it makes for great scapegoating. Even the most liberal estimate would probably put the cost of corruption on a city to its revenues in the single digit percents. Highland Park's problems are far less sexy and far less a conspiracy. You've got a city that lost a larger percentage of its population over the last decade than Detroit [[33.3% of its population, to 25% of Detroits), and a city that had an official poverty rate of 38% in 2000 [[probably officially pushing 50%, now) and a median household income of about $18,000. If income tax was minimal, before, it must be nearly non-existent, now. Couple that with a city with low property values to begin with [[and can you imagine what the recession did to what little was left), and you could have the most competent treasurer and finance department in the state and it still wouldn't make HP a viable city. You've got much healthier cities with stablizied populations and property values, or at least those with lower digits losses, that have had a hard time budgeting. Try budgeting for a city losing a full 3% of its population every single year.

You look across the proverbial street to physically vibrant Hamtramck, and arguably better run, and it was staring receivership in the face just a few months ago even after its years-long state takeover.

Wouldn't it be so easy if we could boil down all of these fiscal emergencies to mismanagement and corruption? Fiscal mismanagement and corruption are problems, but we're lying to ourselves if we think these are the central things killing these cities. They aren't.

[Dexlin]

BTW, decided I'd actually go an look up the budget numbers for HP. The latest numbers are from the 2009-2010 fiscal year. It looks like total tax revenues were down a whopping 28% from the previous fiscal year, and that that was slightly offset by the fact that state revenue sharing to HP "only" declined 9% over the same period. Federal government revenue was down 76%, but surprisingly, federal government money makes up less than 1% of the total revenue coming into HP, that year. Overall, total revenue was down 11% from the previous year.

Expenditures wise, it seems for 2009-2010 HP spent a full 27% of its funds on debt service alone, and that was increased debt service spending from the previous year. That's nearly as much as spent on general government [[~29%). The third biggest expenditure was police and fire [[22%)

Overall, total revenues for that year were $14,392,016 [[down 11%) and total expenditures $16,896,951 [[down ~1.3%). The only thing that would make this more clear to me is where exactly does lighting count in all of this "general government" spending or the "other public works" category?

[Trumpeteer]

DTE took those fancy street lights from its ghettohoods since last summer. Execpt on Woodward Ave. Fewer streetlights were placed along John R Rd. Second, Third, Hamilton Rds. This is result of corrupt HP city council and its workers. And of course DTE as a the rich that takes its utilities from the poor. They have to make money to feed the bigger pigs in Wall Street.

DANNY give your NEDA crap a rest! Most privately owned electric utilities SUBSIDIZE the poor through financial assistance to pay their bills, mandated lower base charges, AND assistance in energy efficiency improvements to their homes such as providing weatherstripping, CFL's, etc. Companies like DTE PROVIDE the "utilities" and thus can't "take them away from the poor". Utility stocks are often a major part of retirement plans for we in the lowly middle class and not just the "pigs" on Wall Street. Isn't it time for you to be at your nearest "Occupy" sit in?

[Scottathew]

And of course DTE as a the rich that takes its utilities from the poor. They have to make money to feed the bigger pigs in Wall Street.

Huh?

If you don't pay your bills, then you don't get utility service. It's not some evil greedy scheme to take over the world by screwing over poor people.

It sucks that Highland Park won't have well lit streets. However, there are more options than just having street light poles.

My neighborhood is well lit by public lighting, but many folks on the street still want more light and install porch lights.

So if folks in highland park don't feel safe because their street is too dark, install a porch light! a ~20 watt CFL light will provide around the same level of light as a 100 watt traditional bulb and will light up a lot of real estate.

[sycloneman]

Huh?

If you don't pay your bills, then you don't get utility service. It's not some evil greedy scheme to take over the world by screwing over poor people.

It sucks that Highland Park won't have well lit streets. However, there are more options than just having street light poles.

My neighborhood is well lit by public lighting, but many folks on the street still want more light and install porch lights.

So if folks in highland park don't feel safe because their street is too dark, install a porch light! a ~20 watt CFL light will provide around the same level of light as a 100 watt traditional bulb and will light up a lot of real estate.

VGP! -- Regardless of the municipal-provided lighting, there should be plenty of other lighting as well.

[sycloneman]

The only thing I don't get is that I have never heard of an energy provider coming out to remove poles, lights, etc. So am I to assume now that if I don't pay my electric bill and get shut off, DTE will run out and rip out the wiring to my house as well as the meter right off the side of my house? Just because services are shut off doesn't mean there won't be an ability to purchase said service in the future.

[SWMAP]

DTE will cut your lines at the pole & possibly remove the meter. Meters get swapped out often in Detroit anyway, and put in other houses. Not sure of the value of that scam to the scanners, but it happens.
All is replaceable when the bill gets paid.

[Trumpeteer]

The only thing I don't get is that I have never heard of an energy provider coming out to remove poles, lights, etc. So am I to assume now that if I don't pay my electric bill and get shut off, DTE will run out and rip out the wiring to my house as well as the meter right off the side of my house? Just because services are shut off doesn't mean there won't be an ability to purchase said service in the future.

The poles have copper or aluminum wire in them that scrappers love. It's also impossible to determine which light isn't burning due to a simple blown fixture vs one that's cut for non-payment. For a home, running a service drop and placing a meter back into the meter can is not a difficult nor costly exercise. You pay the bill it doesn't happen.

[sycloneman]

I stand corrected...lol thanks.

[DetroitPole]

Poor Highland Park. Street lighting is the first step toward public safety. I wonder what will become of this sad place. It makes Detroit look like a bustling metropolis.

Porch lights are a good point. We push very heavily in my neighborhood to have porchlights on. It makes a huge difference. However some blocks are nearly pitch dark. Almost always the rattiest homes, occupied by the front-porch grillers who like to make everyone listen to their bumpin' music and profound conversations. You just can't make some people care.

It is a poor substitute for streetlights, but the blocks of HP need to organize and push heavily to have people turn their porchlights on. Start knocking on doors. We do it. They can do.

[Islandman]

http://detnews.com/article/20111012/...g-streetlights

[Detroitej72]

The only thing I don't get is that I have never heard of an energy provider coming out to remove poles, lights, etc.

In the article DTE said it didn't want the liability from leaving the poles up, therefore it was decided that removal was the best option.