City Christmas Tree Gets Lit

Last night was the first time I saw the beacon turning. Is that just for the holidays? i'd love to see this as a permanent feature...

Dan,

That rotating light atop City Hall is the Lindbergh Beacon, originally set in place in 1928. It sat forgotten in a warehouse for many years after it was extinguished as part of the wartime blackout regulations. It was discovered and restored as part of the City Hall renovations that concluded in 2001. It has been activated every year during the holiday season since then. I believe there have been previous blog posts on blogdowntown concerning this subject.

p.s. Does it seem like the light has been dimmed in intensity since its debut in 2001?

Dennis, I have not detected any dimming of the beacon. Possibly, there has been some wear and tear over the years.

Do you think the tree uses LED lights? Do you think the City is using their Green Power for that monster of a tree?

Not to dampen the holiday season - but we've spent most of our year turning off the lights, using less water...let's not give up on our new habits just because it's December.

^ Downtown Los Angeles, compared with the City of Lights (Paris), Chicago or New York City, which over the past 20 years has been among the most ambitious of US cities in illuminating skyscrapers, originally was beholden to a string-saving, cheapskate type of mentality. It's a major reason the area previously was a perfect example of a do-nothing, do-little, "it can't be helped" way of thinking. And it's a big factor behind the center of Los Angeles rapidly going down the drain to begin with, starting over 30 to 50 years ago.

I'm with SarahGrl here. Fire up those generators! Celebrate the season with gusto. I don't like going to parties where the host is trying to cut corners and save money. Thrift is a virtue when sensibly applied.

I recall vividly 7-8 years ago coming home on the 101 and seeing City Hall illuminated for the first time. It was awesome. Downtown needs more, way more, effort and ambition to celebrate itself. Let's ditch the party-pooping instinct.

Why doesn't the DWP have a holiday light celebration downtown like they do in Griffith Park. Hey DWP, next year why don't you light up the trees on some of the main streets Downtown?

DWP wants to increase your electric rates 9% over the next three years and water rates 6% over the next two years thanks, in large part, to a multi-million judgement that DWP over-billed LAUSD.

That means no DWP surplus into the City's General Fund for the next few budgets.

Hence, the one-two to the Mayor with the TUT issue especially after raising the City's trash collection fee to put more cops on the streets that has yet to be delivered.

In sum, DWP putting holiday lights anywhere next season will be like having the deck hands on the Titanic sprinkle tinsel about the ship after the iceberg's been struck.

I'm not trying to be the holiday grinch - I'm just saying - why not use LED lights - which still have light, but won't use the same amount of energy.

I'm okay with the raise in energy rates - as long as it is at the expense of using more earth friendly (or forgiving) power generation.

Alex and I did the LADWP holiday light walk - and there a couple of displays with LED lights.

Our Christmas Tree is all LED this year, and it's beautiful.

All I'm saying is that if we want to really green our city, we should continue to expand our mass transit system, find better ways to deal with our garbage, use less water, and use less energy.

Micro solutions pale when compared to finding solutions to Industry like the Port of Los Angeles and the Port of Long Beach.

It's all warm and cuddly to think our collective existence can carve of X pollution while giants continue to contribute 10X. In the meantime, as US industries face conforming with environmental regulations, neighboring countries are building ports with little or no environment standards and moving cargo into the US on trucks that might never pass native standards.

You want to do something for the environment buy America if for no other reason than the cargo might likely move less (creating less pollution) than goods shipped from somewhere like China.

Look at the pollution our consumption lifestyles generate and focus there rather than buying green goods still sent through a gross-polluting supply chain...