“Let There Be Light” (Emitting Diodes)!

Under a bright noon sun, Fernando Casanova tricked a brand-new street light into turning on—and offering a new vision for nighttime safety in Newhallville.

Casanova, an electrician with Pasquariello Electric, did the deed for a crowd gathered at the corner of Lilac and Newhall streets Monday.

They gathered on the corner to try to stop trouble, not to make trouble. The group of ministers and city government workers united to bring 11 new LED (light-emitting diode) streetlights to various blocks of Lilac in order to better illuminate the night and, they hope, reduce crime in the process. They dubbed their effort “Project Lighten Up.”

“Let there be light!” Alan Kendrick of Church of the Redeemer proclaimed as Casanova put electrical tape over a sensor that otherwise will turn on the corner streetlight every night once it gets dark.

Project Lighten Up grew out of a grassroots Newhallville organizing campaign spearheaded by Minister Donald Morris and called Promise Land. (Read about that here.) The campaign went door to door to ask people their priorities for improving the neighborhood. Better-lit streets emerged as one of nine top goals.

The city agreed to install the 11 lights on Lilac in response. They cost close to $6,000 in total, according to Seb Asadourian of the city engineer’s office. He said other LED streetlights have gone up on Ashmun Street and at State and Chapel. The new LED lights cost less and last longer than the traditional “high-pressure sodium” lights they replace. They consume about half as much electricity, according to Asadourian. Also, they emit a brighter, whiter light; that enables people to see more clearly and better notice colors (of fleeing vehicles, for instance) than they can in the yellowish glow of the old lights.

That deters criminals from committing crimes in the first place and better protects officers who arrive at crime scenes, said top neighborhood cop Lt. Kenny Howell.

“Lilac happened to be on the of the darkest streets in the city,” Kendrick said. He said the group originally thought it had to raise money for the streetlights. Now that the city has agreed to foot the bill, the group plans to raise money to place “strategic post lighting on people’s private property.”