This issue should directed to Parks Trees Division. Parks need to send somebody to trim the trees for more lighting. The lighting level is where it should.

Regards!

Thanks Sebouh,

I don't believe that the trees could be trimmed out of the way of the lights at this point. The trees canopy is lower than the lights.

Regardless, low level street lighting is more human scale and aesthetically pleasing for a commercial corridor. I think this is a question of both safety and beautification.

The Upper State Street Association Looked into paying UI to run the light the night poles like in East Haven, but it does not seem economically sensible to rent this much equipment.

Yes, by adding low level light it would enhance people to walk comfortably in the light compared to the shadows the lights produce shining on top of the trees. Currently the lights are producing night pollution and are not effective in their purpose. The scary part about this complaint is the citys reaction could be to cut more of the trees. The correct solution should be to add historic looking lampposts like the city has placed in other parts of the city, and to be able to control the amount of light, sometimes the lights are too bright for an area, ie residents that live above can't sleep, etc. Sincerely, Susan Frew

Another person wants this fixed!

Could not agree more with the comments of Ben. Safety and beautification!!!! After all don't we deserve the same considerations as other areas of New Haven?

Great Idea Ben!
It would be a huge enhancement to the neighborhood.

Funding to add pedestrian lighting is not available right now. This issue can be brought up at higher level for consideration.

Regards!

Sebouh:
You sound as if you are an authority on this matter, are you an official of the city with knowledge of available funding, or are you just trying to condemn the idea because you don't like it? If it is the latter; it appears you are out numbered.
It will be brought up at a "higher level", thanks for the idea.

Perhaps lower level street lighting would add to the overall safety of our community and save money on other city services like police patrolling etc???????????

All I am is street lighting administrator and I have a budget to work with to maintain and repair street lights and to make sure that the lighting level meet Illumination Engineers Society's standards. Any additional lighting increase request has to come to from higher up and funding goes with it.

Regards!

Thanks Sebouh,
Keep up the good work!

Appreciate your quick response and explanation of the current budget situation for your department.

The good news is that if we get low level street lighting your guys wont have to go as high to replace bulbs ;-)

Yeah why not ? If other areas of the city have these type of poles/lamps then why should'nt you ?
After all streetlights are for illuminating the street.
Landlords are the ones that can install these types of lights and actually turn on the ones that are attached to their buildings.Property owners should have some sort of lighting for the safety of their tenants and passersby.

Yes, street should be lighted. I agree that low-light would help

This would not only address safety but would go a long way to enhancing the look of the neighborhood...

No Brainer go for it

The lower-level lighting makes walking at night much more pleasant. We have a similar 'problem' with a beautiful tree canopy on Edwards between Whitney and Orange, and I worry about all the walkers at night. In the commerical district on State, it seems especially appropriate.

I think the low lighting would be a great addition to our street. People coming to local businesses in the evening would feel safer and it would also make the area more inviting.

Great idea! An inexpensive way to deter crime and make our neighborhood more navigable.

It is a beautiful tree canopy on Edwards St. There are some pretty old Oaks, some are not too old. One landlord has been calling the City about the two trees overhanging his property in a pretty frightening fashion. They give him the usual spew.
( i don't want to be too long on a diff. thread,god forbid)
Anytime a good rain and a breeze comes along a rotten branch comes down. Mostly all of the branches are no where near pedestrians overhead.
They cut what was left in St.Joes lot down , they would fall for no reason , sometimes over the sidewalk which was a dangerous and litigation ladeled.
Nothing scraping ones' face. A lite trimming on some would be benificial but only complete removal would shed the kind of light good Mrs. ? above is looking for. And she's right about it being pretty dark - not long for all the leaves to fall and ,well with the moon full on Nov 3'rd we shall have glorious moonlight. I have seen a light on at one home , a porch light and a motion sensor that really helped cut the gloom.
The homes around Culpertwaits occasionally have porch lights on and as there are no trees in front of those homes it is plenty - but the issue of whose UI is covering those lights is what perpetuates the permanent shutting off of the porch lights etc.

sorry for the hodge-podge. hey no typos ! Between soup cooking & off topic ...

most definitely

More lighting so woman can take awalk

Great idea, Ben.

The low level lights on Hillhouse Avenue looks fabulous ! They've been in place for a while now but what a job over there, and it's not even a commercial strip. Way to go

Re: The low level lights on Hillhouse Avenue looks fabulous ! They've been in place for a while now but what a job over there, and it's not even a commercial strip. Way to go

You can thank Yale for those light...that was NOT done by the City of New Haven!

Economic Development,
What would the time line be on this project?

Timeline for what project Ben?

In West Philadelphia, UPenn and the utility company match 70% of the cost of pedestrian level lighting and it has had a huge impact on that entire area, which is similar to central New Haven in size.

From a dollar per dollar cost benefit though, I think improved traffic calming would do more than lighting here. Both would be great .... but how about starting by making it more comfortable for pedestrians to cross the street at absolutely ridiculous intersections such as East/State and Humphrey/State.

A lighting project like the one being discussed here would be extremely expensive....

I have gotten cost estimates under 300000 for 30 lights. Traffic speeds here are under 25 mph average according to stats posted after ped sign was placed. Please open another issue for specific traffic calming measures.
Thanks

300000 that the city does not currently have -- though lighting is certainly one of the best forms of traffic calming.

Speeds are fine on State Street from Humphrey to Edwards, but from Edwards on out (and from Clark or so down into Downtown), they are still way too high especially during off-peak hours.

Lighting would help bring those down, in addition to what less expensive measures could do. My concern besides the speed is the distance that pedestrians have to cross at Humphrey/State and East/State.

Yes, there are already issues open on the intersection problems, but this page is a problem-solving forum for discussing neighborhood priorities and it is good to keep costs in perspective vis a vis other potential interventions.

The problem with bringing the traffic calming issue to this issue is that it totally killed the thread.

I would report lowering speeds on State Street as a separate issue.

I want to encourage people to speak up if they want better lighting on Upper State Street.

This is one of the banners that we will be hanging on the new traffic poles designed by local artist Teaessare.

If there were low level light poles we could hang banners like these all the way down the street.

A citywide campaign is being established to advocate for low level and pedestrian-scale lighting. Lighting, economic development and personal safety is clearly an issue throughout New Haven, both along retail strips and elsewhere.

Many successful models of community coalitions can be found in other cities.

Please continue to speak up about lighting on State Street (and elsewhere) and encourage your neighbors to post on this website. Additional details will be posted here in the coming weeks; approximately 5-10 volunteers who can dedicate 2-3 hours per week towards research and advocacy will be needed in order to make the campaign a success.

Hey Mark,

Any progress on the campaign?

Chrissy, have you made any progress on this on your end by chance?

Hey Ben,

Still setting that up but will be in touch.

I went across Court Street late at night the other day, the new lighting was definitely a plus.

Mark

I had talked to Chrissy Bonano about this a while ago but have gotten very busy and have not been able to work on this.

Is there someone that wants to help lead this charge in talking with the City?

Hi all--

Pedestrian level lighting has been a request the City has received from a number of neighborhood commercial corridors including Upper State, Grand Avenue, Westville Village and Whalley Avenue. As noted earlier in the chain, lighting falls under the Engineering Department which reports to CAO. However, considering the importance of this issue to the success of neighborhood businesses, Economic Development is committed to working on finding a solution but we need your help. After speaking with Michael Piscitelli in Transportation, we would like to convene a small group to work with the City to find cost effective solutions that meet the safety and aesthetic goals of the community. If you are interested in, please email me at cbonanno@newhavenct.net.

Thanks,
Chrissy Bonanno
Deputy Economic Development Administrator

Thank You Chrissy,

We would love to get a small group together to work with the city on this.

Anyone else interested please cc me ben@seeclickfix.com on the email as well.

Alison Derenzi from L'Orcio says, "Count me in"

What is the status of the working group on pedestrian level lighting? Count me in as well!

By the way, the new pedestrian level lighting on Prospect Street, between Grove and Trumbull looks excellent. Can't wait to see it in operation.

This seems to have faded when Chrissy left. Maybe the group that is working on parking with M Piscitelli could work on this.

Did the group ever form?

i am definitely still interested!

The group never formed and I admit lack of time to organize this right now. If there is federal funding for these types of project say we go for it otherwise probably not the year to poke the city.

I also have been looking at Whalley and thinking they really need lights before us.

I say we keep the issue open and see If we can push for federal funding for transpo improvements .

I have been doing some research; the site below seems to have some great products & ideas using solar, I think the tech has caught up. Take a look at the site and more specifically the metro series. very cost effective also.

http://www.solarlightingusa.com
http://www.solarlightingusa.com/metro-series.html

Besides being a great product there available in black, white, green, bronze and other colors.

Hey Ant,
Thanks for the research. Maybe the office of sustainability could help. How much would this cost in your estimate and would there be any need for wires?

I have contacted the company. Budget numbers, specs, and samples should be here shortly. Along with the prints floating around you should be able to come up with a hard budget number with costs from adding pole base footings to installed fixtures. Contact me if you would like to proceed with anything I can do to help with creating a proposal package and design.

Awesome Ant! Post details here when you get them. This is great.

Ill come up with a package asap Ben.

Hi Anthony, any word on the quotes for these lights?

I agree that pedestrian lighting is really important to creating a healthier and more efficient city. There are a number of other posts about pedestrian-scaled lighting in New Haven on SeeClickFix, and also requests have been made by neighborhoods and business districts all across the city.

Please contact newhavensafestreets at gmail.com if you'd like to volunteer to work on a citywide campaign to coordinate these efforts.

This wouldn't replace local organizing, like around this issue here on State Street, but would be a way to take the first step of getting people who are currently in different neighborhoods to talk with one another and share best practices around lighting.

P.S. Did anything ever happen with the city working group on lighting, referenced below by one of the city staff members?

The group from the City was started by Chrissy who is not there anymore. Anthony has been the most passionate about this and it would be great if he could get a partner in the city to help move this forward.

Has the City shown any interest in moving forward with improved pedestrian scale lighting in our neighborhood business districts?

As of 2013 City departments have begun to review, acknowledge and respond to SeeClickFix issues. Since your issue is in the category titled "No Service Request" and was submitted prior to 2013, we are going to close and archive it. If this issue still requires City attention, please report as a new SeeClickFix issue. Thank you.

Hi Guys,
There are over 50 people's emails attached to this issue for updates so I'm going to reopen as creating a new one would take a lot of work to keep all of those folks in the loop.

Thanks,
Ben

I'm reopening as a citizen and a neighbor here btw. Just happened to be logged in as my admin.

I believe it should be opened again, there is a need for pedestrian light, all that has to be done is an added collar to the existing light poles with energy efficient lights facing toward the sidewalk, under the canopy of the trees, an easier solution than cutting all the trees like they have done in the past. This has been an issue in the past 20 years and nothing has been done and no response from either the city or the utiliites, nor the DOT.

This issue was recategorized from Uncategorized to Street Lamp.

Great to see low level street lighting added on part of the street by the new Corsair development. How excellent would this lighting be down the entire tree lined street?

That would really improve the street

We are delineating Street Lamp issues that are current and need the city's attention to resolve. Any issues prior to Dec 31, 2015 are being closed. If your Street Lamp issue still needs to be addressed, please create a new issue by selecting the Street Lamp service request in SeeClickFix. Providing a pole number and/or a more precise location is important. Once your issue is submitted, the Transportation, Traffic and Parking Department will acknowledge the issue and create a maintenance/repair work order.

Read this NHI article for additional information: http://www.newhavenindependent.org/index.php/archives/entry/city_street_lighting_/

Thank you.