Community Conversation on Street Lighting Assessment (May 6)

Dear Neighbor,

Many of you have received a ballot regarding the proposed Street Lighting Assessment, and we’ve heard questions about what it means. To provide clear information, my office is hosting a Community Conversation with the Bureau of Street Lighting to walk through the proposal and answer questions.

Street lighting is a basic city service and a key part of public safety. In recent years, repairs have slowed due to copper wire theft and limited staffing. Outages that once took days to fix are now taking months or longer in many cases. Citywide, roughly 1 in 10 street lights are out. That is unacceptable.

In the short term, my office has worked with the Bureau to bring additional focus and resources to the district, including a dedicated repair team for Council District 5 and funding to convert more lights to solar to reduce theft.

Over the long term, the Bureau of Street Lighting is proposing an update to the assessment that funds this work. The assessment has not changed since 1996, even as costs and system needs have increased.

If you are a property owner and live on a street with streetlights, you may have received a ballot asking whether to adjust this assessment. This meeting is an opportunity to hear directly from the Bureau, understand how the system works, and ask questions.

Event Details:
Date: Wednesday, May 6, 2026
Time: 6:00 PM
Location: Virtual (Zoom) RSVP HERE: https://www.zoomgov.com/meeting/register/nrHsJFjWQcefJLJF6fHUhg#/registration

For additional questions, you can email the Bureau of Street Lighting at bsl-assessment@lacity.org and include our office at councilmember.yaroslavsky@lacity.org to help ensure a timely response.

All my best,
Katy Yaroslavsky