Bright Lights in the Big City

The Times has an interesting story about one person's battle against light pollution. Susan Harder has been fighting against excessive and poorly designed lighting for the past several years. Her saga began when St. Mark's Church in-the-Bowery installed floodlights in an attempt to prevent assaults and robberies in the church's graveyard. Three of the floodlights shined directly into Harder's apartment, in which no assaults or robberies were taking place.

Since that time Harder has educated herself on the intricacies of electric lighting and lobbied Albany for legislation to control exterior lighting levels. It is claimed that excessive lighting wastes energy, adversely affects health, disrupts ecosystems, interferes with ground-based astronomy, and reduces safety. Harder has had some success in getting legislation passed on Long Island, but the city's Department of Transportation strongly opposes light-limiting measures. Steven Galgano, executive director of the DoT's Traffic Operations division goes as far as saying any street lighting designs by dark-sky advocates are "unacceptable", because they often leave dark patches between bright spots versus the uniform blanket of light currently created.

The other dark-sky opponents are the city's many business improvement districts, claiming the lights make the city safer. The International Dark-Sky Association, however, says that there is no clear relationship between lighting and crime.

Some egregious examples of excessive lighting pointed out by Harder include a "cluster glare bomb" at 7th Ave and 36th Street and the "Obi-Wan Kenobi swords" lining lower Broadway. A business down the street from Gothamist's apartment uses an enormous floodlight to shine on a small banner. Do you have examples of excess lighting or floodlights pointing skyward in your neighborhood?

Earth's lights at night image from NASA.

Contact the author of this article or email tips@gothamist.com with further questions, comments or tips.

By Joe Schumacher in News on December 17, 2006 2:10 PM

Comments [rss]

Joe

The image is a composite, but it is based on real data from the Defense Mapping Satellite Program's Optical Line Scanner, which was designed to observe clouds by moonlight but can also detect lights on the ground at night.

I don't think anyone expects the city to be dark, but with a little design and foresight we can light things that need to be lit, like streets and signs, and not light things, like apartment interiors and the sky, that don't need to be lit.

Guy

I know it's Herald Sq. but a couple of years ago they installed these gigantic floodlights on top of the Manhattan Mall (A&S Plaza) and a couple of other building around it. I suppose it's not residential so it doesn't bother anyone too much, but man are they excessively bright. Not much crime going on around that area as far as I can tell.

huh?

Why do people who live in the city expect it to be dark?

jt

The NASA image is not "100%" real -- it's not dark out around the whole globe at the same time. It's a composite of real images.

wholesale

Hope she gets somewhere and sets some kind of precedent - London is always covered with an awful orange glow as the unnecessary lighting lights up the car fumes every night.

Chris

Yeah, jason, that image is totally fake. If by fake you mean 100% real and funded by your tax dollars.

maid in ny

How much of the pollution is attributed to the Mayor's tax break for Film Production?

I kinda had a hint that image could be fake, it seems to pop up when North Korea is in the news.

big whoop.

jason

That image is a fake.

It's been around for years.

Peter

That NASA image is so cool. One of the best features, which you need a larger image to make out, is the huge difference between South Korea - almost completely illuminated - and North Korea - almost completely dark. The Nile River valley is pretty cool, also.

esm

what i don't understand is why so many of the "safety lights" point directly out into space (say, our 3rd floor window across the street) instead of downward, illuminating said danger area.

the flood lights on the huge apartment building across from us are an unseemly pink red color that illuminates our bedroom (thank goodness for the light blocking blinds - too bad we can't tell when its morning), and if we leave the door open, we have a hard time seeing the t.v. from the glare. yuck. i am all for better lighting design - which doesn't have to mean darker streets.

sa

4th st between bowery and broadway - lights fill in from every direction from a car park, construction site and paranoid residents - night for day all the time - new yorkers are basically afraid of the dark.