SAN DIEGO — People who live in San Diego's Loma Portal neighborhood are up in arms over the removal of historic lampposts — some of which have been around for more than a century. One neighbor contacted CBS 8 after seeing city crews take down lampposts near Poinsettia and Lotus.
“I saw a bunch of them coming down yesterday and it was horrifying to me,” said Kim Leary.
On Wednesday, neighbors gathered to voice their concerns after crews were spotted removing some the day before.
"I just got on the Nextdoor site and said help us. Our lampposts are in danger and these people showed up immediately," said Kim Leary.
Leary and others in the area are concerned it's an ongoing project that will end with all of them eventually going away.
"I know the electrical is old style and it might take a little more effort and labor but we are all tax payers here. Our taxes can go toward that sort of work to improve the neighborhoods, to fix the lampposts rather than destroy, remove and replace them with unsuitable lampposts for our community," said Elaine Burrell.
Burrell, who showed CBS 8 a book she and her neighbors created about the history of Loma Portal, including its lampposts, says they are significant for a number of reasons.
“They mean charm and beauty and history of our community," Burrell said. "The lampposts represent safety and security for our children and our families."
Robert Allenby shared those same sentiments. He's lived in Loma Portal for 60 years.
“They are poles that we decorate every holiday season. It's the fabric of our community. It defines who we are and it always has been,” said Allenby.
Many of the old lampposts haven't worked for quite some time.
That's the case in nearby neighborhoods like Kensington, where last year city leaders unveiled a plan to replace 50 of them saying they weren't reliable or safe.
As for Loma Portal, CBS 8 reached out to the city to find out what their strategy is.
A spokesperson said:
The scope of the Plumosa Park Series Circuit Conversion project is to update the circuitry of the streetlights and replace the poles, which are both nearing 100 years old. While the streetlights are old, they are not in a historic district and, therefore, are not historic themselves. The circuitry will be updated to be more reliable and wired so that if one light goes out, the rest will stay on while the one that is out is repaired. The actual luminaire will be updated to LED technology, which is more energy-efficient and will last longer between replacements.
When streetlight poles have reached the end of their useful life, they begin to lose their structural integrity in both the pole's interior and the foundation. Preservation of poles requires additional analysis and typically results in added costs and new components to retrofit the poles with updated connections and luminaires. The restored poles are not anticipated to have the same life expectancy as a new pole and foundation, resulting in additional costs and maintenance by City crews in the future. For those reasons, this project included the replacement of the poles instead of restoration or retrofitting of existing elements.
The city later provided additional information, telling CBS8, the project underway consists of removing 39 lampposts on the north side of Chatsworth Boulevard. However, there are no current plans to remove lampposts on the south side of Chatsworth, including the ones in the middle of the street, which the area is known for.
A spokesperson tells CBS8,
"The City has identified these lamp posts as ones that may need to be addressed in the future, but discussions regarding potential options have not begun."
CBS8 will update this story as more details become available.
WATCH RELATED: Residents in the Loma Portal area in the dark as city crews work to fix streetlights