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Dear Representative Anderson,
I am a Westland resident who
recalls your years of excellent service
to our city as councilman, and
am pleased that you are
now serving in an even larger capacity as a state representative.
I am writing
to call your attention to a concern that I
addressed to the city council a few years ago, but that has
even larger
implications than for our city alone - excessive
outdoor light levels - light pollution. Action
to fully address
this issue is being considered in the State Legislature. I am
respectfully requesting
your support, or even co-sponsorship, of any
legislation Representive Paul DeWeese (District 67,
Ingham and Livingston counties) may introduce on this subject.
California's energy crisis has
been headline news for weeks now....
huge price jumps, rolling black
outs, energy conservation
requirements. Michigan is not exempt from this situation.
We perenially
push electrical demand to near limits, yet one
glance down a many a street in the average town at
night and you would
think power is free! Downtowns with frivolous acorn
lights all aglow (and more
planned to come - help!), gas stations with
as many as 60 brilliant halogen lights, car dealerships
lit like the day with nary a soul in sight. This situation simply
did not exist only a few decades ago.
Why the lust for light
now? Crime reduction? Safety? Hardly.... Much
of it is sheer decoration
and advertising. It's a national shame,
and the
effect is economically and environmentally irresponsible.
No
correlation between lighting and crime reduction has ever been
established. In fact, some of our
brightest sites experience
the most crime - witness three gas station robberies in this
area in just the
past week alone. More remarkably, towns in New
Mexico that reduced or even eliminated streetlighting
found a dramatic drop in crime! While I do not advocate the
elimination
of nightime lighting, I and
many others feel it is far
too misused and overused.
A recent Environmental Protection
Agency study consistently listed electrical
power plants as leading
polluters in each state.
Our Monroe Edison coal-burning plant, for example, released 12 million
pounds
of pollutants into the atmosphere in 1998
alone according to the report. Yet a drive down Plymouth Rd.
in Livonia
or downtown Ypsilanti at night makes me want to cry.
The antique light installations there are splendid monuments to
stupidity
and greed. This is not the way
to light our cities in
year 2001 when better ways exist. I routinely point to the
full-cutoff
fixtures along
Eureka Rd. at Vining, south of Detroit
Metro Airport as examples of how to do it right. Conservative,
well-placed, well-designed lights that do not assault the
senses or waste energy to the night sky should
be the norm, not the
exception. Further, gas stations should be required to
contain lights in recessed
fixtures that limit excess and do not
produce
light tresspass. Little consideration is given to those
that
live near these installations and have to endure the brilliant
conditions. One should not have to pull
heavy blinds at home
just to get a decent night's sleep. Animals, dazed and confused
by the light,
that have evolved having darkness necessary for
navigationor their very survival, are put into jeopardy.
The night
sky we enjoyed as children is a but a memory and does not
exist for the current generation.
Our night sky should be black,
not orange! This is yet another way in which we have lost
touch with
nature, a message I will convey as part of a grant
I received to inform high school students in southeast
Michigan
of the problem.
I appreciate any consideration you
might give to help legislate the
reduction of energy waste, environ-
mental damage, and
needless expense for the taxpayers. Please support efforts
to reduce light pollution.
Sincerely,
Norbert Vance
38524 Jill Dr.
Westland, MI 48186
(734) 487-4146