Blinded By The Light? Brooklyn Residents Say LED Street Lights Are A Nuisance
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- Brooklyn residents say the city has cast their neighborhood in a harsh new light.
"A strip mall in outer space is the metaphor I've been using," Jolanta Benal told CBS2's Tracee Carrasco.
That is how Benal described her Windsor Terrace neighborhood after new LED street lights moved in.
"It's just extremely harsh, intense, and it has this inescapable quality," she said.
The new lights were installed a few weeks ago and have meant sleepless nights for Benal and her neighbors. Residents say they are way too bright.
"They pretty much light up the street like it's daytime," one resident said.
"It's like a movie set, or a construction site," another said.
The Department of Transportation is in charge of the change, and told CBS2 that the conversion is meant to help the city reduce it's carbon footprint by 30 percent by 2030.
"I totally support that. I totally support that," Benal said. "But the thing is they can be installed in such a way as not to cause the problems that they're causing for us now."
In Brooklyn, the DOT has already installed more than 6,500 street lights and will be completed by August 2016. So far, all major highway lights are in the process of being changed along with the ones in Central Park.
The total price tag of the project is about $75 million.
Some say it also comes at the cost of residents.
"I would definitely call it unbearable," Benal said.
Residents said the DOT has been out to look at the lights and adjusted the angles of some. But according to residents, that effort hasn't been enough, and the lights need to be dimmed.