Dark streets and a search for enlightenment

Every so often this reporter takes mass transit to work. Rarely do such good deeds go unpunished.

Take, for example, the events of Tuesday morning.

Having almost completed the pleasant walk from Union Station to The Times' office in City Hall, it was hard to overlook a gaggle of officials roasting in the sun at the corner of Main and Temple.

A dais and easel were there, too, meaning only one thing. It was time for another news conference -- one that could easily have been avoided by simply driving to work. Rrrr.

And the news of the day was . . .

Bad people in the city have been breaking into city streetlights and stealing copper wiring. The city can't seem to stop such thefts.

Only nine city officials took the microphone to get the message across that this was a very naughty thing to do. Councilman Tom LaBonge also intoned this important warning: "It's dangerous to be around electricity."

The best -- or perhaps worst -- part of the story was that some streetlights in Boyle Heights still haven't been fixed since thieves struck in August.

There is some irony here. Just down the hill from Boyle Heights, Department of Water and Power crews have been working since early last month to install Christmas lights on the 4th Street Bridge, while blocking traffic lanes doing so.

But the DWP doesn't fix streetlights. That's the purview of the Bureau of Street Lighting. It is also worth noting that when we called the Department of Transportation to find out which agency was blocking lanes on the bridge, the agency didn't know. Officials had to look at one of their remote cameras positioned on the bridge to figure it out.

Why does it take the Bureau of Street Lighting more than three months to fix a streetlight?

"It doesn't do us any good to replace the wire without the secure lids" on the base of the streetlights, said Cynthia Ruiz, president of the Board of Public Works, adding that a special order has been placed for tamper-proof lids.

But, we asked, isn't it just a wee bit weird that a DWP crew has time to put up Christmas lights but the city can't fix a streetlight in a timely fashion?

Ruiz: "You know I'm going to say no comment to that. You'll have to ask the DWP."

Me: "But you're laughing."

Ruiz: "So are you."

So why does it take the nation's largest municipal utility nearly one month to string up a bunch of Christmas lights -- like they do each year?