Indianapolis Mayoral Candidate Joe Hogsett Pledges to End 34 Year Moratorium, Promises New Street Lights as Part of Crime Plan

In a speech to supporters inside the old city hall, former U.S. Attorney Joe Hogsett set out his public plans for public safety.  Hogsett provided a list of crime prevention measures, featuring most prominently a call for 150 more police officers.

Left: traditional street lights;  Right:  LED street lights

What unfortunately got second billing was Hogsett's call for an end to the 34 year old moratorium on putting up new street lights in Indianapolis.  It should have gotten top attention.  Probably nothing will  improve safety and reduce crime than to bring light to the darkened street corners all over the city.

It's an issue I've written about before.  In fact, I pondered whether Hogsett would pick up on the issue during his campaign.  He did that but unfortunately he didn't give it the attention I think the issue deserves.
It remains to be seen whether Republican candidate Chuck Brewer will also address this much needed issue. 

Below is the article I wrote in November of 2014 about Indianapolis street lights.

Fox59 broadcast this most interesting story last Thursday:

Marion County has not installed a new street light since 1981, when a moratorium was put in place under former Mayor William Hudnut.

The reason, says Stephanie Wilson with the Department of Public Works, was and remains funding. Marion County currently has 29,000 street lights, and their electric bills cost the city $5.1 million a year. Wilson says funding for street lights comes from the transportation budget.

That means adding more lights would result in less money for roads, sidewalks and bridges. When there is an area in need of more lighting, Wilson says existing lights are reallocated.  

“In conditions where there is either a dangerous area for pedestrians or for drivers, we work with public safety, with IMPD and IFD, and we listen to their recommendations. If it’s needed, we can repurpose existing street lights and place them in areas where they are more needed,” says Wilson.

If a new area is developed, street lights have to be paid for through private funds. 

The Mayor's Office admitted the importance of street lights to crime: 

Mark Lotter, Communications Director for Mayor Ballard’s office, says the city needs more street lights to cut down on crime rates and attract new residents as well.

“We understand that street lights and lighting of public streets and sidewalks is very important to making neighborhoods safer,” says Lotter. “It also makes them more inviting and better places to live.”

Lotter says that a "long term funding sources" have to be identified.  That's Ballard speak for residents needing to open up their wallet and pay higher taxes or fees if they want a city service funded.  That's been the history of Ballard's tenure as Mayor.  Existing revenue sources can always be found for corporate welfare for politically connected developers and  billionaire sports owners, but if residents want basic city services, they need to open their wallets and pay more. 

Let's do some basic month.  The current 29,000 in street lights use $5.1 million in electricity every year. That is $175.86 for every street light.  So if the city added a 1000 street lights, that is only an added cost of $175,860 a year. We can't find that in the budget without raising taxes? 

Further, the addition of new lights could be used to take advantage of new LED technology that would save on maintenance cost and offers substantial energy savings.  San Antonio converted its 20,000 street lights to LED in 2012.  Forbes last year reported on Los Angeles' retrofit of its street lights with LED illumination, the world's largest such project.  The Forbes article details not only savings, but has before and after pictures showing the LED lights providing much improved illumination.

A few weeks ago, the Ballard administration announced it was converting the city's fleet of cars over to alternative fuel vehicles by using a third party vendor from which the city would rent the vehicles.   As a result of this "green" initiative, the Ballard administration claimed taxpayers would save money, a claim that was easily refuted by anyone capable of doing sixth grade math.  But with LED conversion of street lights, the Ballard administration could actually adopt a green initiative that truly would save the taxpayers money.   Apparently though Mayor Ballard is only interested in things that make money for companies, not in proposals that save taxes. 

It will be interesting to see if f Democratic mayoral candidate Joe Hogsett picks up on this story. It's an ideal campaign issue.  It's easy to explain the connection between street lights and Hogsett's signature issue, crime.  It illustrates the misplaced priorities of the Ballard administration. Using the LED technology, the conversion of street lights could also be sold as saving the taxpayers money.  It's a win, win, win. 

Note:  A company named Leotek produces A Municipal Guide for Converting to LED Street Lighting that has useful information.