UCPD street light advice not feasible
I find university police spokeswoman Nancy Greenstein’s
encouragement to walk in well-lit areas ridiculous and virtually
impossible in the Village. I’ve always noticed the high
number of non-working lights in the Village (“Where the
streets have no light,” Nov. 17). On a recent trip to find
street parking late at night, I counted how many lights were broken
to report them to whoever has the job of keeping them working.
Every single light on Strathmore Avenue between Levering and
Veteran avenues was out, every light on Kelton Avenue between
Strathmore and Levering was out, every light on Midvale Avenue
between Strathmore and Levering was out, and every light on
Levering between Strathmore and Le Conte Avenue was out. This is
almost half of the streets in the North Village and throughout the
rest of the North Village scattered lights were out as well: This
is clearly unacceptable. With the armed robberies during the summer
and early fall, these large stretches of darkened street should
have been the first thing addressed by UCPD and the city; however,
they obviously were not. It is partly the responsibility of
residents of Westwood Village to report broken lights, but UCPD
should also be held responsible (perhaps by having community
service officers report them when they see them), especially if one
of their solutions for student safety is to encourage walking only
in well-lit areas. It should also be mentioned that while the
Bureau of Street Lighting encourages people to report broken
lights, it is primarily their responsibility to monitor the lights
themselves.
Jennifer Richardson Fourth-year, communications
studies