Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass announced on Wednesday, April 2, new efforts to keep communities safe and well-lit with the installation of hundreds of solar-powered streetlights that will help curb copper wire theft. The project was launched on South Grand View Street and Ocean View Avenue in Historic Filipinotown.
“We are using new and innovative ways to improve city services for Angelenos – from modernizing the MyLA311 system to installing new solar lighting,” Bass said in a prepared statement. “The city is taking action to make your neighborhoods safer and cleaner.”
For years, thieves have stolen the copper wire used in streetlight poles, leaving Los Angeles communities in the dark. The solar-powered streetlights are expected to reduce copper wire thefts because solar power doesn’t require copper wire at the bottom of the streetlight poles.
Thieves pry off the access door at the bottom of the light pole, and pull the wire out. The problem has affected many cities as the price of copper rises.