After 6 Months, Streetlights Come Back On

Five streetlights were out on Rock Street in Cedar Hill for months until this weekend — with neighbors staying off the street and asking the city to shed some light on the issue. 

That ask came from Camille Ansley, a neighborhood activist and Cedar Hill mom who is working through a 29-point list to clean up the eight-block neighborhood north of I‑91. One of those points is dedicated to getting the city to turn the lights back on — and citywide concern that a city official said a retooled effort is getting to.

After scoring $10,000 in Neighborhood Public Improvement Program (NPIP) funds from the East Rock Community Management Team and the city government’s anti-blight Livable City Initiative (LCI), Ansley has turned her attention to another problem in the neighborhood: darkness, and the ​“shady stuff” that transpires under its cover.

Over Memorial Day weekend, four of the five lights were repaired. Ansley said she hopes that the city can fix the remaining light before East Rock’s grand Fourth of July celebration, when New Haveners flood Cedar Street to get a good view of fireworks.

City transit chief Doug Hausladen, whose department took over fixing streetlights this year (click here to read a story about that), said he’d been unaware of the Cedar Hill problem until a reporter contacted him last week, at which point he put in the order for the repairs. He said he subsequently discovered an unread email chain from earlier this month that listed the problem, among others, in the neighborhood. He said he shouldn’t have missed that email, and that in general his department is ​“still playing a little catch-up” in getting to the many dark streetlights around town along with other efforts to improve lighting. Meanwhile, the city is working to get the word out to neighbors like Ansley about how to get streetlight complaints into the system, either through the SeeClickFix platform or by calling Hausladen’s department directly.

Until they were replaced last weekend, the five streetlights were out on Rock Street, beginning with one close to Ansley’s home and ending with three in a row just past the entrance to East Rock Park, where Rock Street becomes English Drive. Around six months ago, according to Ansley, she notified LCI about the problem and contacted Ward 10 Alder Anna Festa. Then she submitted a pole request form to United Illuminating, only to find out that the company does not oversee streetlight repair and maintenance in New Haven. The city does.

Each time a streetlight goes out, it makes the street less safe, Ansley said. When the light around 22 Rock St. stopped working, drug dealing increased across the street, beneath a short tree surrounded by lush, overgrown shrubbery. Then she noticed a second fixture wasn’t working, a double-headed streetlight at the corner of Rock and View. Neither side — one light facing out toward Rock Street, another focusing on English Drive, where cars sped from East Rock Park into residential Cedar Hill — was working.

“We want joggers, walkers, kids out here,” she said, gripping the steering wheel as she drove from one light to another in the rain. ​“Who’s going to run down a shady street like that?”

With the light at the intersection out, Ansley and fellow activist Kennya Adams-Martin watched as the View Street splash pad and playground beneath it became overrun with graffiti and garbage. She feared that three more lights just down the street, where English Drive skirts a basketball court and then heads into the park, posed the same threat: littering, loitering, and reduced pedestrian safety.

“Not only is it a public safety issue, it leaves room for shenanigans,” Ansley said, pointing to the View Street light from the front seat of her car. ​“If a light is working, they might think: Could someone possibly see me?”

According to the city, Ansley’s efforts at reporting the lights haven’t gone through because they don’t abide by protocol. After speaking to LCI staff member Linda Davis, who works closely with the East Rock Community Management Team, Ansley contacted the city Department of Transportation, Traffic & Parking. Ansley claims that department chief Hausladen never responded to her queries; he claims he first heard from her in mid-May, and counseled her to use SeeClickFix in an email sent on May 24, on which the Independent was copied.

Ansley also contacted the Department of Parks, Recreation and Trees about the three poles on English Drive because she assumed anything in the park fell under its jurisdiction. She said didn’t hear back. As streetlights in Cedar Hill flickered on each evening, she watched the five hopefully. Nothing.

That’s because the city’s ​“preferred procedure for reporting streetlight issues” is on the citizen reporting platform SeeClickFix, said mayoral spokesman Laurence Grotheer, responding on behalf of the Department of Transportation, Traffic & Parking. That system is still relatively new, noted Grotheer; until July 2016, the program was maintained by an outside contractor, which did not use SeeClickFix to record and track reported streetlight complaints. 

Residents can still call the Department of Transportation, Traffic, and Parking directly, and ​“city officials are here ready to assist and do what we can,” Grotheer added. 

He said that SeeClickFix, which now has a contract with the city, may be faster because it can streamline a complaint. Users can direct their queries to specific city departments, and track whether those queries are still open or have been resolved. They can fill in information about specific locations or intersections, and leave extra notes — like the fact that a light overlooks a playground.

SeeClickFix Founder Ben Berkowitz said that neighborhoods across the city tend to use SeeClickFix ​“pretty evenly.”

Can Someone Enlighten Me Here?

Several factors go into the time it takes for a dark or damaged streetlight to be identified and repaired. Once Transportation, Traffic & Parking is notified of the issue, crews must consider what repairs have been requested, and evaluate how difficult they will be to carry out. They also take into account weather conditions, and whether cross-departmental collaboration — say to replace a pole, which falls under Engineering’s domain — will be necessary.

Currently, the Department of Transportation is also awaiting delivery of a new bucket truck, and the start of two new ​“dedicated streetlight maintenance electricians,” whose positions have been approved by the Board of Alders. 

Between Jan. 1 of last year and this month, 519 streetlight complaints were reported; 71 were described as ​“street light out,” according to Grotheer.

“Only 26 of them describe a problem suggesting more extensive problems including ​‘pole knockdown’ or ​‘missing pole’ or ​‘hanging head.’ 417 of the 519 — 80 percent — are simply described as ​‘other,’” Grotheer wrote in an email message. ​“This makes it difficult for city crews to ascertain the extent of problems, for instance, is it simply a light head change out or does the conduit need repair, or does the entire pole need reconstruction.”

Ansley said that until last week, she wasn’t aware of the reporting process.

“How are we supposed to know?” she said, sending off a second email to Hausladen as she spoke. ​“We’re just putting these up on SeeClickFix … now I’m trying to get in touch with this guy.”

“This has been such a long time waiting,” she said. ​“I just want to see it spruced up.”