Flatbush Streetlamp Project Draws Criticism
A $4.7 million project to replace 500 working streetlamps in Flatbush with antique bishop’s crook lamps has met with local resistance, reports the Daily News. Some residents do not understand the utility of spending $10,000 per lamp (standard streetlamps cost $4,000 each) when the current fixtures work just fine and when the neighborhood could spend…
A $4.7 million project to replace 500 working streetlamps in Flatbush with antique bishop’s crook lamps has met with local resistance, reports the Daily News. Some residents do not understand the utility of spending $10,000 per lamp (standard streetlamps cost $4,000 each) when the current fixtures work just fine and when the neighborhood could spend the money elsewhere, such as streets and sidewalks in disrepair. “It’s ridiculous,” Kent Thomas, 24, told the News. “The lights we have work fine. There are hungry people in this neighborhood who need help; we need shelters and soup kitchens.” The project, which is half complete, received funding from the borough president’s 2007 capital budget. In contrast, Brooklyn Heights has launched a similar, $2.7 million campaign to install bishop’s crook streetlamps, with support from the Brooklyn Heights Association. Whereas opponents of both projects decry the waste of funds, the BHA defended the new street lights, saying they are beautiful, they enhance the neighborhood, and they are historically significant.
Flatbush Street Lamp Replacement a Dud [NY Daily News]
Brooklyn Heights’ Lights [Brownstoner]
yes, expensive nicer looking street lamps so dorks can tape flyers for their moving businesses, handyman services, stoop schlock sales, etc all over them. So historically accurate.
most of the time i love snarkslope (sorry i refuse to call you distmassnark). but not in this thread
*rob*
I myself hate the design. Why are we so intent on making every part of Brooklyn look like a disneyland version of the past? However the lamposts looked in 1880, they look grotesque in their 21st century proportions. And is there no room for modern design in this city? These Franken-lamps are a symbol of our aesthetic bankruptcy.
BTW I’ve asked the whores on Putnam Avenue to dress like Victorian street-walkers…
Snark, I so love you.
Northslope, you’ve got cast iron, with curliques and black paint, and shaped glass globe vs stainless steel stick with a light on it. What can I say?
> And why do the niftier ones cost so much more?
Well, one often pays a premium for good design. They may also be more complicated to construct. And yes, the suppliers may be connected.
If the only difference in the street lamps is that the ones that cost 2.5 times as much are niftier looking, then, yeah… it doesn’t make a lot of sense.
And why do the niftier ones cost so much more? Is the suppliers somebody’s brother-in-law or something?
> street lights are stupid anyway
Yes, how I hate having the streets illuminated at night. We should return to the good old days of carrying torches.
This is a cue for Benson to appear……
That said, I more than anyone, love the shepherd’s crook lamps and think they add a lot of character to historic neighborhoods.
BUT…..safe streets, and other public works that are not just replacing things that actually work,(kinda)but are feeding people, etc, are more important.
It would be great to have both, and it would be very satisfying if they nixed the lamps, to actually see the money go to those other necessary repairs, programs, instead of the funds disappearing into the pit of city spending, never to return to the community. If that is the only alternative – the money going wherever, without a plan, as opposed to street lamps, go ahead with the lamps. At least there is a tangible outcome.
$4.7 million / 500 = $9,400 per lamp.