By Gus Saltonstall
There are more than 60 broken streetlights throughout a significant stretch of the Upper West Side, according to a new survey.
Councilmember Gale Brewer’s office recently sent a team of volunteers to conduct a districtwide survey to count the number of broken lights between West 54th and 96th streets. The survey tallied light posts that are meant to illuminate sidewalks, but did not include stoplights. The volunteers found 65 streetlights either completely broken, flickering, or missing from places where city maps indicate there is supposed to be a light post.
“I trust your agency will follow up and complete the necessary repairs,” Brewer wrote in a letter to Department of Transportation Commissioner Ydanis Rodriguez. The Upper West Side elected official had previously written to the DOT in December about a string of broken street lights along Columbus Avenue, which the agency said it would repair in the coming months.
The map of broken streetlights between West 54th and 96th streets shows a few hot spots of darkness, including between West 86th and 89th streets from West End Avenue to Central Park West, as well as between 94th and 95th streets from Columbus to Central Park West.
Brewer’s team also found five broken street lights from West 72nd to 76th streets, between Broadway and Central Park West.
Here is the full map of the Upper West Side streetlight outages.
You can report out of order streetlights online or by calling 311.
The Department of Transportation told West Side Rag it was looking into the issue, and would get back to us with a response. We will update this article when we find out more.
Subscribe to West Side Rag’s FREE email newsletter here. And you can Support the Rag here.
So like…..1.2 out of order lights per street? Not even per block but street. Uh, ok.
Thank you Ms Brewer.
Ydanis only speaks bike lane
This is terrible. Dark streets increase crime. And don’t stop at 96th street. Go all the way up to 125th.
The north side 101st WEA streetlight just across from us “died” last night. It’s very dark on that street; the only lighting comes from the apartment buildings. I’m up through the AMs, and almost always see unprotected individuals walking to and from in the dark. These are nicely dressed people walking as fast as they can.
This is news?
Fix many of them, and some apartment dwellers on 2 will complain.
They can move.
Right. /s
I saw DJT out there with a slingshot Monday night.
He was laughing with Adams.
You should look in Central Park. That can get scary
That’s great fix the street lights, what about the dog feces on the sidewalks. And garbage everywhere. Where are our Representatives for the upper west side.
No one takes pride in our neighborhood. The store fronts and the apartment buildings are so disgusting with garbage everywhere.
Doesn’t anyone else notice the filth.
What about all the street lights that are on 24 hours a day rain or shine?!?
|That’s why there are 60 broken. Don’t worry they’ll burn out soon.
I’ve tried reporting some to 311, but get a ‘this has already been reported’ automated message. And the weeks go by, and the street lights are never fixed. Hopefully this will be resolved now.
Because by any normal operational standard there are a very high percentage of working streetlights. You can’t expect perfection. The City isn’t going to run to fix one light out of order on a block where all the other ones are working. It’s not normal to expect 100 percent of the lights to work.
Well lit streets decrease crime.
While it is probably a very small percentage, some of these street lights were deliberately shut down because the wiring was faulty and was “electrifying” the metal around it causing harm to both dogs and people. Has anyone looked into whether any of that was corrected?
The DOT can’t be expected to repair street lights, lower speed limits and paint bicycle lanes at the same time. After all it is more important to discourage automobile use.
Reporting broken lights on the 311 website is totally useless.
About two months ago, I reported a broken light on the West Side of Riverside Drive, halfway between 84th and 85th streets. The website indicated that the defective light had already been reported. It indicated Work Order #1107757, which was labeled as “near duplicate” and “on referral”… whatever this means.
So, how good is it if the City does not move a finger when you tell them there is a safety issue?
Eric Adams’ New York City, everyone!!!!
Please fix these lights. Auto crime has increased.