We all know Houston is lit.
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But, surprisingly, our estimated 173,724 streetlights aren’t always the brightest thing your block – especially if you in “the city’s wealthiest and poorest neighborhoods.”
In a study authored by Heather O’Connell at Rice University’s Kinder Institute for Urban Research, the postdoctoral student point to concerns about the places that may be overly lit for the wrong reasons, like race.
“First, black and Hispanic neighborhoods have higher concentrations of streetlights than white neighborhoods. Second, mixed-income neighborhoods tend to have higher concentrations of streetlights than the city’s wealthiest and poorest neighborhoods,” the report reveals. “There may be a point at which having more lights actually becomes a negative. We need to get a better understanding of the lived consequences of the level of available lighting before making any further decisions regarding city streetlights.”
Of course, you can’t make everyone happy, as a number of Houstonians have signed a petition against the city’s attempts to upgrade the streetlights from the yellow-glowing sodium bulbs (designed exclusively to set a scene for horror films) to LEDs.
Despite their objections, the future is looking pretty bright – at least in some parts of town: