Detroit Mayor Dave Bing's plan to fix broken streetlights is faltering and appears to be dead.
Bing, though, told the Detroit News's Darren A. Nichols he's continuing to press state lawmakers to help find the funding needed to keep Detroit out of the dark.
The city is encouraging residents to contact state legislators about the problem in hopes of amping up political pressure, Bing told the News. The mayor wants to resurrect a failed package of bills that would create a lighting authority that could issue up to $144 million in bonds for streetlight repairs.
Bing last month announced a plan to overhaul street lighting that was contingent on passage of the bills. Detroit has been lobbying for the authority so it can remove the burden of capital improvement debt from its general fund budget, but lawmakers could not agree on a funding formula.
The city has about 88,000 lighting fixtures; about 43,000 to 45,000 are operating properly, administration officials say. Not all of those lights will be turned back on, however; the Bing administration plans to prioritize lighting in areas of "population density, commerce, schools and parks," according to a recent report.
