i was peering (as is my slightly paranoid wont) through the airplane window as my flight approached laguardia tonight, watching the vast grid of streetlights below me, and had a sudden inkling of an idea.
there are posters and PSAs and dogooders everywhere talking about how great cfls and leds are, and how much longer they last, and how much less energy they use and… how much energy do you think NYC uses up lighting all those streets? how much money? how much time does whichever department spend fixing them when the lights go out? are they just regular sorts of bulbs? could they be replaced with a more efficient mechanism?
its small in the scheme of new york government, but at least as big as me and all my friends and you and all your friends switching out our bulbs.
and the librarian in me quietly asks, “which of those numbers are public access? where would i find them?”
and the total dork in me, who spent all morning after presents helping mom with her chem homework, thinks, “that’d be kind of a fun math problem… how many lightposts are there in new york?”
