When Moths Fly into the Flames...

[patric]

It isnt enough taxpayers pay for wasteful and inefficient choices for streetlights, but trying to "revitalize" an area by shining intense lights straight up into the sky to create a glowing dome over the city is environmentally and financially out of touch.  
The electricity to pay for this in perpetuity could have gone for fire and police service, schools, pools in the summer (and so on) but instead goes to subsidize the utility's off-peak electrical generation.
 

"They are already beams of light crisscrossing the Brady and Blue Dome Districts. Now the PAC is also a little brighter. Mayor Kathy Taylor is serious about spotlighting downtown Tulsa."
http://www.kotv.com/news/local/story/?id=142706

"I think it really shows the energy and the revitalization that we're seeing downtown, really on every street corner and street," said Tulsa Mayor Kathy Taylor.

A new lighting display is in place to showcase the Tulsa Performing Arts Center. It includes more than two dozen, 150 watt metal halide lights. It takes a few minutes for them to warm up when they are first turned on, but when they do, Tulsa's mayor hopes they will attract people to downtown like moths to a flame.

"The lighting up downtown brings it to life. It encourages people to come down and visit those areas that are alive with light and alive with people," said Tulsa Mayor Kathy Taylor.

It's all part of the mayor's effort to keep downtown from turning into a ghost town at night. Last summer, she launched a campaign to encourage Tulsans to eat at downtown restaurants. The mayor says the latest showcase is just another piece of the puzzle that will culminate with the opening of the BOK Center, next fall.

"The more that can be done downtown. The more things like this. The more amenities will really help us as we open the BOK Center, but it will really help all of downtown," said BOK Center General Manager John Bolton.

Mayor Kathy Taylor says the efforts are already translating into more interest downtown and she says she believes the momentum will continue to grow.


I would hope that enough movers and shakers see this for the shallow extravagance that it is, and take a more responsible approach with our tax dollars.  
Tulsa-sized cities like Tucson, for example, have shown that outrageous light-polluted landscapes are not synonymous with prosperity, and that streets are safer and more alive with people when the lights actually shine on the streets instead of into people's eyes or up into clouds.

This is the complete opposite direction a responsible administration should be heading, but given recent examples of how the priorities seem to be on finding new sources of funding rather than taking control of wasteful spending, I guess this sort of foolish shortsightedness is just Tulsa's current business model.

[CoffeeBean]

Tucson is unique due to the observatories, a fact legitimizing the concern over light pollution:

Tucson Night Skies

[TheArtist]

Ummmm, There arent any buildings in downtown Tucson TO shine lights on and they have these great mountains around them to look at.

I think Boston Avenue may look quite nice. This will add a nice touch near one end. The streetlights, hopefully wont be too bright and will look nice along with the new streets and sidewalks. The new park on Boston Ave will look very nice. Hopefully some of its features and the fountains will be lit up a bit. And the new TCC building on Boston will be a snazzy new, contemporary addition as well that should have some nice lighting features and even outdoor visual screens that have lighting and images projected on them.

I dont mind lighting as long as its not glaring. The new lights on the PAC do not look too bright in the pics. Will have to go and take a look. The right kind of lighting downtown, tastefully done and to add interest and beauty, and even a little excitement, could make it a more attractive place to be in the evenings.

[sgrizzle]

It kinda looks cool since it is actually lighting the building. I never got the sky spotlights though...

[cannon_fodder]

I like well light spaces.  I've never been in a vibrant urban location that was not well light.  In fact, the lack of lighting between the Blue Dome and Brady is a complaint of mine as those two close districts are not really joined (a little dim between them).  I hope it looks as good as they think it will.

I also hope they took pains to reduce the electrical usage (LED lights or whatever) as it does seem a bit wasteful.  But in a city the size and locale of Tulsa - light pollution is a bit of a joke.  You'd have to be 20+ miles outside of Tulsa to go a decent observation of the sky... this isnt going to contribute seriously to the problem caused by the other 200,000 buildings.

[swake]

It looks great, it's a good improvement. Now let's get rid of the surrounding ugly surface parking.

Wasn't there a plan for a new parking garage in that area with some funding in the 3rd penny?

[patric]

quote:Originally posted by cannon_fodder

I like well light spaces.  I've never been in a vibrant urban location that was not well light.  In fact, the lack of lighting between the Blue Dome and Brady is a complaint of mine as those two close districts are not really joined (a little dim between them).

I like well lighted spaces, too, and wish we did a better job at it, but as long as our idea of 'lighting experts' are the people who sell electricity were just going to continue to pay more money for less quality.

quote:I also hope they took pains to reduce the electrical usage (LED lights or whatever) as it does seem a bit wasteful.  But in a city the size and locale of Tulsa - light pollution is a bit of a joke.  You'd have to be 20+ miles outside of Tulsa to go a decent observation of the sky... this isnt going to contribute seriously to the problem caused by the other 200,000 buildings.

 

The effect is cumulative, and though we dont have much say over 200,000 other buildings we ought to have some say in those that drink heavily from the public funds well.
At the very least, the city should be setting a better example than this.

Also, these are not LED's, but rather 4 KiloWatts (350,000 Lumens) of Metal Halide aimed straight up (roughly the equivalent of eight double-sided billboards lit throughout the night).

Im not saying we shouldnt light downtown, but for this money we could light a lot more downtown a lot better.
 
Give this some thought -- how safe do you really feel when there are bright pools of light surrounded by huge areas of darkness?  How  much safer are you when those lights shine in your eyes to the point that you cant see around them?  Now imagine what it would look like of all that light were out of your eyes and on the streets.  For starters, you would need to generate a lot less (since you wont be paying for the light shining at useless angles) and can start spending that extra money on things the city actually needs.  

Tucson is just one of many examples of communities that dont allow light to be wasted skyward.  They originally did it for the observatories but soon discovered that lighting streets instead of clouds cut their utility bill by millions, and actually made it easier to see  on the streets.  Yes they have skyscrapers but they exercise more care in how their lit:


Lastly, if shining lights up into the sky is among the current leaderships best plans for attracting people downtown, the word "lame" just doesnt do the scheme justice.

[In_Tulsa]

I like it. They should do this to more buildings downtown.

[patric]

quote:Originally posted by In_Tulsa

I like it. They should do this to more buildings downtown.

Would you like it better if the lights were at the top shining down and cost half as much?  ...maybe contributing a little light to the surrounding sidewalk and streets instead of going into space?

[sgrizzle]

quote:Originally posted by patric

quote:Originally posted by In_Tulsa

I like it. They should do this to more buildings downtown.

Would you like it better if the lights were at the top shining down and cost half as much?  ...maybe contributing a little light to the surrounding sidewalk and streets instead of going into space?

Doesn't look as good to me..



I believe artistically it is supposed to be more awe-inspiring drawing your eyes up than down.

[dayzella]

I empathize with the "monetarily and environmentally wasteful" point.  But I also think that lights are exciting.  The lighting effect on the building is both architectural and waymarking.  Someone not in town could walk down the street from a parking lot or garage, see those lights, and feel instantly reassured that they were headed the right way.

I hope they turn the lights into red and green stripes for the holidays.  I hope they make them orange for Oklahoma football (did I get that right?) and pink for Breast Cancer Awareness month.  I hope they figure out a way to make them blink, so for NYE the PAC can look like it is twirling.

Twirl, PAC, twirl!

edited to add ...
Someone told me that the Exchange bank building used to broadcast weather forecasts viaby a system of colored lights on the tower.  I think that is awesome and I'm sorry I missed that time period in Tulsa.

[FOTD]

quote:Originally posted by dayzella

I empathize with the "monetarily and environmentally wasteful" point.  But I also think that lights are exciting.  The lighting effect on the building is both architectural and waymarking.  Someone not in town could walk down the street from a parking lot or garage, see those lights, and feel instantly reassured that they were headed the right way.

I hope they turn the lights into red and green stripes for the holidays.  I hope they make them orange for Oklahoma football (did I get that right?) and pink for Breast Cancer Awareness month.  I hope they figure out a way to make them blink, so for NYE the PAC can look like it is twirling.

Twirl, PAC, twirl!

edited to add ...
Someone told me that the Exchange bank building used to broadcast weather forecasts viaby a system of colored lights on the tower.  I think that is awesome and I'm sorry I missed that time period in Tulsa.

It was the Old NBT Building now refered to as 320 S. Boston. I recall the days it was THE bank downtown and when you walked in they had lots of tellers and it had that rich feel to it.
Anyway, the top did signal the weather condition. Before the age of screwing up television programs.

I love twirlers.....and light shows.

[TheArtist]

Aaaactually Tucson does not have any skyscrapers. You could argue that the 1 tallest building is one simply because it is the tallest. But in most circles a skyscraper is a building that is 500' or more. Its not uncommon for your average condo or apartment building to be that tall in many cities these days. The Philtower for instance would be considered an average "highrise", not a skyscraper. Unless it were the tallest building in the area and dominated the buildings around it. But that would kind of be desperate in this day and age. I enjoy getting on the "SkyscraperPage Forum" and they definitely hold to the 500'minimum. Its the buildings over 1,000' that get the attention these days. And now there are buildings under construction in a number of cities around the world that will be over 2,000'.


From Wikipedia...
"A loose convention in the United States and Europe now draws the lower limit of a skyscraper at 150 meters (500 ft).[1] A skyscraper taller than 300 meters (984 ft) may be referred to as supertall. "

Tulsa has 4 skyscrapers at the lower end of the height range. OKC just barely makes it with 1. Tucson 0.

[dayzella]

I meant to bring the camera with me today so that I could take a pic of the PAC.  When the lights came on last night at dusk, it really looked very grand.  The effect of the lights is very theatrical - like pot lights at the foot of a stage.

The old fashioned street lights along the sidewalk of 3rd Street were installed yesterday, too.  At lunchtime the glass tops were on the ground and by dusk they were on the lamps.    They are not the looming freeway sodium lamps, but are the old-fashioned, faux gaslight, black wrought iron kind - about 14 feet in height and light foot traffic area, not the sky.

The pedestrian streetlights are spaced closely enough together so that there are not black holes in the light path.  It is a very grown up city look.  I'll try to get a pic of it tomorrow

[patric]

quote:Originally posted by dayzella

The old fashioned street lights along the sidewalk of 3rd Street were installed yesterday, too.  At lunchtime the glass tops were on the ground and by dusk they were on the lamps.    They are not the looming freeway sodium lamps, but are the old-fashioned, faux gaslight, black wrought iron kind - about 14 feet in height and light foot traffic area, not the sky.
The pedestrian streetlights are spaced closely enough together so that there are not black holes in the light path.

Those are commonly called "Acorns" and the reason they are so closely spaced is that they only put about 30% of their light on the ground at angles useful to human vision, so you need about three times as many fixtures to match the illumination provided by the more common "Cobra"-style lights downtown.

Acorns are good at shining light in every direction except down, and at 13-14 feet a lot of high-intensity light is at eye-level, which produces more glare than useful illumination.  That wasnt a problem at the turn-of-the (previous) century when this style fixture had more moderate light sources inside.

Buying three times as many fixtures just to end up with poorer illumination is not exactly the best investment we could be making, but we seem to be wooed by shiny things and not concerned with how the city spends money.

Now, when the pools cant afford to open this summer the kids can go hang out under all the Acorn lights all night.
Leadership with a vision.