Tuesday, April 28, 2009

4600 Block Of Racine STILL Dark

The folks who live on Racine between Wilson and Leland are still experiencing problems with street lighting that's been going on for two months now. In spite of their many calls, their street is still dark and dangerous. Can any readers who have connections with the City help?

"Thank you for posting our previous reports about the ongoing problem on Racine (between Wilson and Leland) and our lack of working streetlights. Over the last 2 months we have had either 1, 2 or no lights working. Currently, there are still 2 of the 4 lights out on the street and it is VERY dark.

As far as I am concerned, having working streetlights should not be a luxury and it should not take 2 months to get these fixed. I have constantly notified the Alderman's office and had no response til I called them on the phone. The very polite lady said she reported it, but still .... nothing. What can be done to get these lights working before someone is mugged or worse on this street?"

14 comments:

  1. Call 311 and give the specific address of the non-working lights. Please don't give the address as Racine between Wilson and Leland, give the actual address. Ask for the reference number and write it down. Keep the number. If the lights aren't fixed within a few days, call back with the reference number and (politely) ask if this can be resolved asap as it is a safety issue.

    The person who answers the phone at 311 is not the repair person who actually comes out with a toolbox to fix problems. However, they can and should be a conduit to resolve problems.

    As the problem seems to keep occurring and it involves several lights, I would suggest that you make reference all the lights on the block. 4600-46xx. I suspect it is more than one street light that is causing the problem.

    Hope this helps.

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  2. When we were having a similar problem on my block, (the lights were off every other night for about 2 weeks) I emailed the city electric department with the complaint and a list of 10 times I called 911 and the corresponding tracking numbers I received from the operator. I got an email back saying they would resolve the problem, and within a day or two, it was. We haven't had any other problems since January. I used the following email addresses:
    ss00466@cityofchicago.org
    ss00400@cityofchicago.org
    ss00420@cityofchicago.org
    Good luck!

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  3. We are very persistent w/ calling 311 and 911 and provide exact addresses when we call. The streets and sans guys have been out to fix the problem but it keeps occurring.

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  4. Its not streets and sans. This should be fixed before the weekend.

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  5. quityurbitchin...it's night, it's dark, get used to it. How are the homies supposed to get any work done if there's light in the street?

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  6. Streetlight Outages on Racine
    Ward Services & Info
    04/29/2009

    Residents of Racine Ave. near Leland may have noticed recent repeated streetlight outages on Racine.

    The Dept. of Water Management struck a cable when performing an emergency dig on the corner of Leland & Racine and this caused repeated streetlight outages in the area. The Bureau of Electricity (BOE) continually responded to service requests to restore the service when requests were put into 311. However, the lighting was intermittent because of the cut cable.

    Now that the cause of the problem has been identified, BOE is in the permit process to make the needed repairs and will start the work on Monday, May 4th. This should solve the problem of continued outages on Racine.

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  7. That above info was from the Alderman's web site. I have noticed that the lights have been on for a few days at a time, and then out again. So that's either been the street light fairies or somebody from the City has been trying to fix it in the past few weeks. Hope the next fix works.

    But why does a City like the Bureau of Electricity need permits to fix a problem caused by another city department like Water Management? The red tape makes my head hurt.

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  8. Thank the Unions and the lawyers Joe.

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  9. Three Things:

    1) It always amazes me hoe little aldermen know about how the City Works. I read this posts also, and as far as my understanding is, it was not the Department of Water Management.

    2) I understand your frustration.

    3) BOE is bound by the Illinois Underground Utility Facilities Damage Prevention Act, which can be viewed here:

    http://www.ilga.gov/legislation/ilcs/ilcs3.asp?ActID=1286&ChapAct=220%26nbsp%3BILCS%26nbsp%3B50%2F&ChapterID=23&ChapterName=UTILITIES&ActName=Illinois+Underground+Utility+Facilities+Damage+Prevention+Act.

    So is DWM.

    I don't have time to explain everything right now, but I appreciate the thanks for the lawyers. The reason is, without this law you would have 100000 times as many utility hits as you do know.

    If I have time tomorrow, I'll draft something tomorrow to further explain.

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  10. Anyway, the point of my post is that there is no evil intent here by the City. There have been several problems on the block and the City is on it. I am actually impressed.

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  11. I walked by this weekend and I see the locators were out there. Progress is being made....

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  12. Streets and San were out today putting in new piping. I spoke with the crew. Now it's up to a different City dept (not sure which) to come out, run new wires from the corner to the lights and get them hooked up and working. The workers I spoke with didn't have any idea on how long it will be until the other dept comes out and the lights are operational.

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  13. It should be up in 2 days. It should not be Streets and San that is out there. It is BOE. Perhaps you are mistaken.

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