Turning Up The Lights On Gray Market St. East

English: Lit Brothers Department Store, 701-39 Market Street (block bounded by Market, 7th, Filbert, 8th Streets) Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (33 buildings built between 1859 and 1918, unified by a brick & iron facade). (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The Times Square-ification of Market Street East in central Philadelphia is underway, and it is starting at one of the most treasured buildings on one of the most stubbornly seedy thoroughfares in Center City.

Construction scaffolding has begun its crawl up the cake-frosting-white facade of the former Lit Bros. department store, a century-old architectural wonder that will be home to the city’s first flashy, high-tech video billboard screens.

Over the next three months, crews will work to install stadiumlike, wraparound LED signs rising 14 feet above the roofline of both corners of the landmark structure on the 700 block of Market Street.

Officials hope to light up Lits for the first time on New Year’s Eve – the holiday synonymous with Times Square, the Manhattan billboard mecca whose mojo Market Street’s boosters and investors are hoping to mimic.

Read more at http://www.philly.com/philly/business/20140928_Video_screens_to_add_some_pop_to_street.html#pR6W1yWRRd3Al006.99

Streetlights Proposal A Nonstarter For Reading City Council

A 1947 topographic map of the Reading, Pennsylvania area. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

City residents have been taxed to the hilt and need help from the state to help fix Reading’s financial woes, council members said at a finance, audit and budget committee meeting Monday.

A passionate discussion about the state of the city developed during the meeting, spurred by talk of a proposal to start charging residents for streetlights.

The administration has floated the idea of charging residents for streetlights that provide light to their properties.  Carole B. Snyder, managing director, earlier presented the proposal to council, saying it would free money to pave streets.

The city currently uses money from the state liquid-fuels fund to help pay for electricity for streetlights.

Read more:  http://readingeagle.com/article.aspx?id=485327

Retirement Of 100-Watt Light Bulbs Causing Consternation

Diagram showing the major parts of a modern incandescent light bulb. Glass bulb Inert gas Tungsten filament Contact wire (goes to foot) Contact wire (goes to base) Support wires Glass mount/support Base contact wire Screw threads Insulation Electrical foot contact (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Sight and sound play a major role in the human experience, to be sure, so it’s always difficult when somebody suggests we’re getting too much of either.

The brightness of light bulbs and the loudness of internal combustion toys are under scrutiny, and it appears certain that changes are in the works.

I have deep passions when it comes to motorcycles and I understand why others may feel that way about other often noisy recreational motor vehicles. I have especially fond memories of things that go vroom in the dirt, which interest me more than light bulbs, but I’ll try to contain myself until we get the latter out of the way.

On Wednesday, The Morning Call’s front page divulged that Lehigh Valley light bulb lovers are hoarding 100-watters as the federal government pushes a scheme to force everybody to buy light-emitting diodes or compact fluorescent lights.

Read more:  http://www.mcall.com/news/local/carpenter/mc-pc-light-bulb-100-watts-20121227,0,2323522.column

City of Allentown Installing New LED “Green Energy” Street Lights

Image via Wikipedia

Kudos to Allentown for embracing “Green Technology” that will save their taxpayers money!  PPL Electric Utilities is partnering with the city to install new LED street lights in an 7-block section of Hamilton Street for a trial run.  These lights are expected to significantly decrease the yearly cost of operating each light.  Allentown has 8,000 street lights.

Read the entire article here:

http://www.ledsmagazine.com/news/7/11/1