SAN DIEGO — For years, residents in Kensington have been fighting to restore their historic neighborhood's century-old streetlights.
However, the City of San Diego has decided to replace those remaining lights with replicas, citing cost and other factors.
These original streetlights date back to the 1920's when Kensington was first formed.
Neighbors said the lights form a critical part of the community's history. but Monday morning, part of that history was thrown away.
"I heard crashing and I looked out and there was a forklift lifting two of the historic fixtures up into the top of a dumpster and dumping them over the top," said Kensington resident David Roth, adding that the community has been fighting for the past two years to save these hundred-year-old light fixtures.
"To lose these beautiful 100-year-old fixtures that are iconic for this neighborhood... what a waste," he told CBS 8.
Despite community protest, the city previously chose to replace - not restore - 55 of the roughly 80 original streetlights with these aluminum replicas, citing cost and safety at the time.
"People around here call them the 'Disneyland lights,'" he said. "They look like the lights on Main Street at Disneyland."
The fight then focused on the remaining 23 lights, which the community hoped to restore with new wiring and LED lights.
"They had up until now, until Thursday, agreed to work with us on that," he added.
It was last Thursday that they received a letter informing the community that based on cost and expected life span of the lights that the remaining lights would be replaced with replicas and not restored.
"So they're basically just saying, we are going to do what we want to do and lump it!" Roth said
It is a move that has angered this community.
"When did San Diego go from being a democratic government to an authoritarian top-down government where the people and their views mean nothing?" asked David Moty, chair of the Kensington-Talmadge Planning Group.
But the city counters that it did engage with Kensington residents on this project, emphasizing that this is not new, but has been in the works for many months and comes after multiple meetings with the community.
Nevertheless, residents insist they have many outstanding questions and are still awaiting answers.
"We're just getting stonewalled at every corner, and certainly by our political representatives as well," Roth said. "They won't even talk to us!"
For its part, the city of San Diego said it has been "transparent" from the beginning about this project.
A city spokesperson also said: "Taking many factors into consideration for a project like this, the City is moving forward with a solution that is more cost effective and will ensure the longevity of these streetlights for decades to come. We acknowledge that many neighborhoods of San Diego are in need of streetlight repairs, and we want to ensure that we are using the City's limited resources wisely, so that all communities can receive similar levels of investment in neighborhood infrastructure."
The city spokesperson also pointed out that, "additionally, on Circuit 2 the poles of the existing antique streetlights are painted with lead-based paint, and the antique lights depend on an old circuitry system that is unreliable and has led to frequent outages. Because the current lights are on a series circuit, if one cable is impacted, all the lights go out."
"With the new lights the City is installing, each will be individually connected, so when one goes out, it will no longer impact any other nearby lights, which means a brighter, safer neighborhood for everyone."
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