By COLlive staff
Why did Kingston Avenue, the main thoroughfare of Crown Heights, recently go dark?
Many COLlive readers have reached out to find out why it seems to be so much darker on Kingston Avenue and on Albany Avenue in Crown Heights at night.
The answer is that since 1996, the City has been illuminating Kingston Avenue and Albany Avenue with bright 400 Watt street lamps.
About 15 years ago, the Jewish Community Council entered into a contract with the City to pay for the increased lighting in the neighborhood. That is why the brighter lights were left in place when all the City street lights were converted to LED lights about five years ago.
However, without warning, several days before Pesach, the brighter lights were replaced with the standard LED lights, leaving the Crown Heights main thoroughfares much darker.
Reb Sholom Ber Goldstein, a Crown Heights resident, reached out to the Department of Transportation about this issue, which is a “big cause for concern,” he said.
“It seems that the contractor who converted the city lights to LED lighting was unaware of the contract the CHJCC had with the city, and he downgraded the street lamps without authorization,” Goldstein said.
“During these troubling times, with the recent rise in crime, we need more light on our streets, not less!” Goldstein said.
Rabbi Eli Cohen of the Jewish Community Council told COLlive, “We would like to thank Reb Sholom Ber Goldstein who worked very hard over the years on this issue, as well as other Kingston Avenue improvements, such as all the benches on the Avenue.
“Because of his work, the 400 Watt requirement was incorporated into the design plan for Kingston Avenue when it was rebuilt several years ago.”
“The CHJCC will be reaching out to the City to improve the lighting and restore a bright Kingston Avenue as quickly as possible,” Cohen said.
Goldstein has another solution in the meantime.
“Until the city does return the brighter lamps, each community resident should increase in good deeds, to bring more brightness to his surroundings by doing random acts of goodness and kindness,” he said.
Yes it felt very unsafe to walk in the dark
yes its not normalllllllllllll like hellooooooo
A little light takes away the darkness.
And more light will chase away even more darkness 🙂
Shkoach ber taking care of Crown Heights
This does not look safe. With all the crime they need more light not less. The city should be setting up those portable event lamps until this is fixed.
It would be nice if all CH streets will have more lights not just Kingston and Albany, all private houses as well and not just few intersection lights on the corners and security cameras too …. now it’s summer coming and more often people will go out till late hours. Thanks for taking care of the issue .
This is no joke
I’m no genius, but this action will definitely increase the crime rate in crown heights.
It’s like Dinkins days when the city did not change lights that burnt out. Soon these liberals will outlaw street lighting as it hurts the natural look of the environment. Keep outlawing everything but criminals. No plastic bags,no paper bags,no fur,no building glass buildings and make life more difficult fo New Yorkers. Tax drivers and drive up taxes. Waste tax payers money on going after President Trump and corrupting the next generation.
Because there aren’t enough accidents WITH the light on….
This is so scary!!!! Way too dark!!!
file a complaint with the Department of Transportation, if the street lights on your block are dark, tell them!
once you have the complaint number you can also call Jaoson Hur at Laurie Cumbo’s office and give him the complaint number
The more complaints they get, the the BETTER the chance they’ll do what’s right, sensible and SAFE!