Someone Buy BSL a Calendar with Sunset Times
Eric Richardson
[Flickr]
DOWNTOWN LOS ANGELES — Back in November I mentioned walking home down 7th, only to have no street lights between Grand and Broadway. It was a very odd experience. Yet later that night I drove down 7th and everything was normal.
The exact same thing happened tonight. I started walking down the street only to realize that it was a bit darker than normal. Again all the lights were off. I stood there a few minutes taking some pictures, and at 6:15 all the lights suddenly woke up.
Does the Bureau of Street Lighting just have 7th on a timer wth a poor grasp of when night comes? You would think someone would get that taken care of already.
Update (Thursday evening): Tonight these same lights came on at 5:30, so obviously it's not the same timer every night. It's done the darkness thing to me a time too many to be random, though.
meekorouse on February 01, 2007, at 02:54AM – #1
our building is like that too.. the atrium lights are set to go on at like 430pm (and I mean ALL of them) and they stay on all night, as if there's no such thing as a oil shortage or something.. and then they shut off in the morning.
I find it annoying because I'm up most nights with insomnia and although I appreciate the added safety the lighting gives off, it makes for a brighter apartment during the nightime than during the daytime if you can believe it. We got curtains in our office but the living room loft windows are going to be much costlier to hang anything.. and we might reconsider renewing our lease depending on what our rent does at the end of the 12mo. period (we pay a LOT more than we're used to for our 880sq feet but so far it's been ok). I like living downtown!
meekorouse on February 01, 2007, at 02:58AM – #2
doh.. i guess what I meant to say is I wonder if it's really done by anything other than a timer, rather than actual sunset??
Laura on February 11, 2007, at 12:58AM – #3
Many people don't know about the City's 311 service, "a single toll-free phone number to contact City of Los Angeles officials for any non-emergency public service." I have used this to report street lights that are out, obtain city employee e-mail addresses for work, and request that my old sofa be picked up at the curb. I love the idea of this service, and it's so easy to whip out a cell phone and call right when you're walking past the problem. Then you know that they know about the problem, at least. On Friday, I called about the missing walk signal button at 7th and Francisco that was preventing pedestrains from crossing there, and they said it would be fixed within 36 hours. We'll see Monday...
Laura on February 11, 2007, at 02:30AM – #4
Oh, I just read farther back in your blog and read that you already called. Glad to hear others are using 311. :-)