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No streetlights tonight
Following an automobile accident involving a light pole, Dominion Virginia Power discovered a serious repair problem at the Church Hill substation.
As a result, the city’s Department of Public Utilities is not expecting the streetlights in Church Hill, Downtown, The Fan, Fulton Bottom, Shockoe Bottom, Mosby Court, or Whitcomb Court – approximately 5,500 lights – to come on at dusk this evening and it is unknown at this time how long it will be before Dominion can perform repairs.
The City of Richmond is advising caution during this evening’s commute home, especially for pedestrians. Traffic lights are not impacted, but visibility will be affected. If you reside in an impacted neighborhood, please keep your porch lights on this evening. Residents who need to go out to walk pets or otherwise need to travel by foot or bicycle, are advised to travel in groups, wear reflective, light-colored clothing and carry a flashlight.
The Richmond Police are aware of the situation and will be diligent in patrolling affected areas this evening.
I know we having aging infrastructure and all, but isn’t there some way that they can power the streetlights in our area from another substation? Or bring in a back-up generator?
And given the number of times the streetlights have gone out in the past, how has a more permanent fix not been made?
You’re killing us, DPU! You’re killing us! 😛
Who’s game for a massive-scale version of hide & seek tonight? No guns allowed.
SO This one light was the linchpin for the whole east coast’s eliictrical grid?
I think I saw a die hard movie with a similar theme
Not having the street lights on last night was wonderful. My bedroom was so nice and dark and the few Christmas decorations up already really stood out. Everyone thinks street lights make you safe, but they actually enable people to be out and about at night which leads to way more crime in my opinion. When we aren’t bombarded by artificial light, we actually see pretty well in the dark so I just don’t see the need to turn an entire city into daylight 24/7. Or if we are going to have them, we don’t need nearly as many as we currently have. I have like 9 street lights surrounding my house, when 2-3 would provide more than enough light for both sidewalks and alley. Huge waste of money and resources.
@#7. Bret, I live in Fulton and have a streetlight right outside my front bedroom window. It used to be like stadium lighting in the room at night. I talked to the lighting folks at DPU, and they installed a lower wattage bulb, and more importantly, a hood over the light that directs the emanated light downwards instead of allowing the light to go sideways into the bedroom. A pretty effective solution. The bedroom is darker, yet the street remains lit. Heavy blinds also help keep the rooms dark. I also requested this in my alley, as the lights back there also lit up my back yard excessively. The people at DPU were very understanding and took care of it within a few days of my request, coming out at night to make it all happen! I agree with your post in many respects. Less lights, more strategically placed are more effective and less invasive.
So glad this topic was started – I’m an advocate for less AND more efficient city/park lighting. Why? Check out the International Dark Sky Association (IDA). http://www.darksky.org They are the national and international consensus organization that has established a model ordinance that can/should be used by every community/city in the world. We have a chapter in this area.
Driving down 25th St last night with this on my mind, I noticed the gorgeous rows of short historic street light poles for the first time. They look great and would provide a signature look to the road leading up to Ocean Grocery corner store, but they are completely drowned out and overwhelmed by the miserable looking 30′ tall overhead street lights dominating the landscape. You could remove all of those, still have just as much light for pedestrians and a nicer cleaner more historic look. Save money on energy too.
spacecat – I actually did just that recently and they just installed them last week. Unfortunately the lights around my house are so high up, the shields made no difference, the only light they blocked is probably what was falling on my roof. I got blackout curtains for the bedroom, but you can still read a book in my backyard in the middle of the night its so bright. They didn’t mention lower wattage bulbs and I didn’t even consider that as an option, I’ll see if they could try that. Thanks for the advice.
thanks for the tip spacecat! i’ll definitely give that a try.
my bedroom is lit up like a grocery store all night long.
it’s awful.
even with shades.
I came home at dark and called Dominion and the city to follow up. I work for the power company – don’t ever assume that someone else called it in!
I thought “Great, I hope there won’t be break ins because of this.” I was in my back yard and sure enough, a group of young men were walking by and one said, “Now’s a great time for some break ins.”
When Gaston blew through Richmond back in 04 or 05, I lived in Oregon Hill, and the power was out for a week or so. At first it was really dark, but after a couple of days, everyone had lanterns and candles on their porches. It made OH look amazing at night. Probably not safe from a fire perspective, but much less jarring than the regular street lights. I have a friend who lived in Ohio and he hated his street light, so he’d go out late at night and shoot the bulb with a BB gun. Spray paint also works well to dim the brightness, I’ve heard. Just saying…
oh yeah, and lasers (naturally, this is for informational purposes only):
youtube has many of these under ‘street light lasers’
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xbt3Ih8yAcI
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qJlHRS7eh0A
What are the chances that they were just joking? Shit, I would say something similar totally sarcastically. Yet…would anyone assume I was serious? Probably not.
@Katie – I think when you really have to worry more about break ins is when the electricity is out period. People who depend on alarm systems or video survelliance to protect their property are screwed. The street lights in our part of CH have been out 3-4 times this year and I don’t think that has translated to break ins, although I would certainly recommend turning on some exterior lights to be on the safe side.
what are the chances we could petition to have the tall, really bright street lights removed and replaced with the nice kind that they have on grace street? It’s amazing the difference. The streets are still well lit, but a completely different feel.
I agree, someone saying “its a good time for break ins” when observing the dark doesn’t mean anything. When an item won’t scan at the grocery check out and someone says “it must be free then”, do you think they are seriously planning to shop lift it? I agree you need to be vigilant when you have a sudden change like a power or light outage, but I wouldn’t be overly paranoid about it. Most of the crime in CH comes from people hanging out at night on corners, which is totally enabled by our “safe” street light system. The contrast created by the street lights also create dark hiding spots in alleys, stoops and bushes that your eyes cannot adjust to due to the bombardment of light everywhere else around you. Once people had a few weeks to adjust to fewer or no streetlights, i would feel a lot safer personally and would be glad my city is no longer spending millions and emitting so much pollution just to enable crime and make our landscape look like a ugly slum.
Motion sensors are also a possible choice especially for low activity street corners or alley openings. This might also be a solution for you folks bothered by the bright but shielded light. My back alley city light is on a motion sensor and scares me sometimes when I set it off….
I would love to see our street lights replaced. I was hoping we would get to the place where we could sponsor them, like we did for the trees. When I’ve mentioned that idea to others in CH, most people have said they’d be glad to sponsor a lamp in front of their house to replace a street light.
I like that idea.
#20, i love that idea.
how can we get more information on that?
it would make a huge difference!
I don’t know but I will try to find out and share.