Cassandra Cabil stands in shadows cast from her home as she looks out into her street illuminated by house lights in Highland Park, Mich. The 2.2 -square-mile city, unable to pay its $80,000 per month light bill, has worked out a deal with DTE Energy to have the electricity provider turn off and remove nearly a third of Highland Park’s overhead street lights.By COREY WILLIAMS
Associated Press
HIGHLAND PARK, Mich. – As the sun dips below the rooftops each evening, parts of this Detroit enclave turn to pitch black, the only illumination coming from a few streetlights at the end of the block or from glowing yellow yard globes.
It wasn’t always this way. But when the debt-ridden community could no longer afford its monthly electric bill, elected officials not only turned off 1,000 streetlights. They had them ripped out – bulbs, poles and all. Now nightfall cloaks most neighborhoods in inky darkness.
“How can you darken any city?” asked Victoria Dowdell, standing in the halo of a light in her front yard. “I think that was a disgrace. She said the decision endangers everyone, especially people who have to walk around at night or catch the bus.