Budget Cuts To Darken SoCal City Street Lights

Property owners could reverse hike

December 20, 2010 5:53 PM

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VISTA (AP) — To trim $9 million from their budget, Vista officials say they will shut off half of the city’s residential street lights in March unless property owners agree to pay higher lighting fees.

Fees could cost residents of the north San Diego County city between $4 and $20 a year.

KNX 1070′s Tom Reopelle reports.

SoCal To Turn Off Street Lights In Budget Cuts

In turn, Vista residents complained about bright lights at the new City Hall.

City spokeswoman Andrea McCullough tells the North County Times that lights in the park behind the building have been shut off and lights in front of the Civic Center have been dimmed.

Inside the building, she says lights are being dimmed at 7 p.m. instead of 10 p.m.

Most lights are energy-efficient so dimming them won’t save much, but McCullough says residents will at least know the city is doing its part.

(© Copyright 2010 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.)

Budget Cuts To Darken SoCal City Street Lights

Craig V Adams

Simply put – it’s extortion. Throw the bums out!

Lilly

Exactly. Who do these fools think they are ?
hadley

Fire some bureaucrats, instead!

Harpotoo

Obummerville USA = Lights OUT in America!

Doc

That’s the plan, it seems, isn’t it? I hate the Democrats and everything they stand for.

billybeer

but McCullough says residents will at least know the city is doing its part. Maybe the politicians could spend less on useless BS…..
Bobby Echard

Direct result of liberalism.
John Doe

So residents paid a lighting fee which was put into the general fund and spent. The city spent that money on other stuff. Now they are blackmailing residents to pay additional lighting fees under threat of shutting off lights.

Sounds like city officials should be thrown in jail

Doc

“blackmailing”? Blackingout is more like it.. just like they do in third world countries, like Nicaragua.

DUDE MCDUDE

Isn’t it strange they always cut something obvious and dramatic when they want money? How about cutting down on public vehicles, commissions, secretaries and expense accounts. Perhaps they could even consider cutting their amazingly rich pensions.

Dennis

When forced to make budget cuts government will always choose to cut the least it has too which brings about the most harm..

http://www.bilco.org/2010/12/21/city-threat-to-shut-street-lights-in-budget-crunch/ City threat to shut street lights in budget crunch… | Bilco's Domain

[...] (Top headline, 1st story, link) [...]
Ralph

City street lights are a unnecessary expense. Where I live the city seems to think every street needs to be lit up. I will recommend the city shut off half the lights in my city.
Mandy

Politicians know to make reductions in services that are the most visible to the taxpayers. Cutting a new program or an old redundant program (and we know there are plenty) would not be visible and hurtful to the taxpayer. It is like holding taxpayers hostage. Hm-m-m-m, sounds like a line from our President.
Rip VanBullwinkle

Oh sweet saint of San Andreas hear my prayer.

Vera Hamann

amen!

Achilles

The best thing that could happen in SoCal is a 9.5 to occur.

Dustin Arnold

But isnt that part of going “green”? Think of all that electricity they will save!
Jim

I say shut them off, and every crime that happens as a result is a lawsuite

Bob Norton

Street lights don’t reduce crime. It’s power company propaganda. Not a single peer-reviewed scientific study shows any reduction in crime from street lighting. All it does is mess up your dark adaptation and increase contrast, leaving dark shadows for criminals to hide in. The best street light is a flashlight.

Hap Hazard

so live in the dark on your street and be happy Bob. Others like the light because it makes the neighborhood warm and inviting.

Mike

Turn off the heating or cooling in city buildings. That will save a lot. The power requirement for lights is almost non-existent. Maybe 5% of power use at best.
Boyd

The Washington Monument Syndrome – a political tactic used by government agencies when faced with reductions in the rate of projected increases in budget or actual budget cuts. The most visible and most appreciated service that is provided by that entity is the first to be put on the chopping block.

This is right up there with dismissing all opponents as racists. It has become so overused that most everyone is just plain immune to it. The public is just not in the mood any longer to put up with this nonsense. Turn ‘em off. Then we don’t need the government parasites who have attached themselves to this operation, do we? Get rid of most of them, rehire at a cheaper rate and then the money is there to turn them back on. The looks about ready to call your bluff on this.

Servena

Heckuva good job. I sure aprpeacite it.

Mike k

just once it would be nice to hear “city threatens to cut mayors salary” or “city threatense to stop buying brand new computers this year” or “city threatens to lay off useless employees”

but they always threaten to cut off things the PEOPLE ACTUALLY NEED THEM FOR

billy

Oh no, they just built a multi million dollar compound of a City Hall why would they think of cutting budgets when they can spend more. Oh they also just bought $9 million worth of real estate for redevelopment. Our city is not a business let the investors do that.
As a Vista resident I would say that most of the street lights are not needed anyways as most of outer Vista is rural. They need to turn off the flood lights in their brand new city hall and maybe rip up the unneeded extra parking lot that took them 9 months and almost a million to build. Cash Cows.

John Xenos

Sure go ahead. And while your at it cut the police force and fire.
Chris Ness

End light pollution now!
http://www.urbansurvival.com/blog/?p=3153 Rally On! Some Recovery, Huh? | UrbanSurvival

[...] out in LA reports a city may turn off its street lights to save money. Which could be why cars have headlights on ‘em. Out here in the East Texas Outback [...]
Peter

Find out how many city government employees were used to manage to light, lay off haft of them and keep the light on.
goalbysummer

Shut ‘em off. The stars are prettier anyway.
Mr S

Thank God the city folk are finally are getting over the insecurity of having night lights on when they sleep. It does no good to leave lights on in cities all night, only to help the thieves see . With night vision cameras for security and putting lights and alarms on motion detection systems , security can be handled with out all that energy waste that the government has been blaming on citizens that are not using the right light bulbs in their own homes. You shut off all lighting like after 12midnight and it may resemble the rural country environment but everyone will get use to it, and it will also lower the crime rate, when younger citizens will not be loitering and running the streets shooting each other.
MadSmoker

Less light pollution, less electricity cost – sounds like an improvement to me.
Karl Nonnenmacher

Just Google “Washington Monument Syndrome” to understand this threat.
JDUDE

Their councilman, Frank Lopez, wrote thousands of dollars of bad checks, yet still remain…
Lady Barstow

why don’t they switch to solar powered lights, then it won’t cost anything beyond the initial start up costs