Last Updated on October 13, 2020
A Detroit neighborhood, unable to pay its electric bill, took the unusual action of ripping out a thousand streetlights.
It’s no secret that Detroit was hit hard by the economic crisis, particularly after the automotive industry suffered such setbacks. But for the Highland Park community, night now is a lot darker than it used to be.
The city, reports the Associated Press, is $58 million in debt. Its annual electric bill is $4 million, which requires a payment of $60,000 a month.
They apparently felt that removing all of those lights was the logical step.
But was it?
It would be one thing for the community to simply not burn the lights. That would easily cut the electric bill and accomplish what they’ve already accomplished.
I just have to wonder, however, how much it cost to have crews remove 1,000 streetlights. Someone had to be paid to do that. Even if it was done by city crews who were already on the clock, not ripping out those lights would have still allowed those crews to take care of more pressing services for the community.
And what happens when, eventually, Detroit recovers from the financial crisis and those neighborhood residents start clamoring for their streetlights back?
The crews that removed them will have to return and re-install them. So instead of simply not turning them on, the city will end up paying double the cost for having to re-install what shouldn’t have been removed.
Then there’s another big issue: by removing the lights, the neighborhood is potentially more dangerous because criminals will have an easier time taking advantage of the cover of darkness. If they have to bring in additional police officers or step up patrols because of the increased darkness, are they sure they’ll be saving so much money?
Does their decision make sense to you?
it sounds like from the article it was contract crews from the utility (DTE) that removed the lights, not the city. The article almost gives the sense that the lights were repossessed by the utility.
having lived in the detroit area for a few years (10+ years ago), Highland Park wasn’t exactly an area I would have chosen to go through on purpose even back then.
Perhaps not the best decision but it sounds like the city has had problems paying its lighting bill for a while. If Highland Park has had problems with losing residents over the years, this certainly isn’t going to encourage people to move in or existing people stay. It’s probably going to end up making things worse for the city.
@imabug Interesting point about DTE. The move assumes a finality when it comes to the community’s ability to pay; if the lights couldn’t be made to stay off, all the utility should have had to do was to just remove the bulbs themselves. It still seems wasteful to physically remove everything.
@patricksplace@imabug I have to agree with you, Patrick. It seems like overkill to remove them when the bulbs could have been removed, instead.