Board of Aldermen Page 2
July 12, 2016
board and she can answer any questions | am sure and she has strongly recommended that this support
be undertaken.
RESPONSE TO REMARKS OF THE MAYOR
Alderman Siegel
| would like to speak briefly about the LED lighting and set the record straight. The AMA did not issue a
recommendation for 3K lights; in fact their statement has no recommendation. The paper that some
people in social media are quoting has original research which in fact talks about 5K lighting of an iPad
being read for hours at night. We are talking about street lights and as another point the reason that the
lights look brighter is because they are brighter to the human eye because they are at the center point of
our vision. We are putting in street lights, we are not putting in romantic lighting for people to have
candle lit dinners by. | would also argue that communities are not adopting 3K lights, the vast majority is
adopting 4K lights and | will leave it at that.
Alderman Schoneman
Mayor Donchess, when does the Board of Public Works hope to make a decision on that?
Mayor Donchess
| think this month. There is an article in the New York Times about this very issue; 3,000 K versus 4,000
K today. In New York they are finding that some troubled neighborhoods prefer the 4,000 K and some of
the calmer and affluent neighborhoods want the 3,000 K.
Alderman Schoneman
What is the rating of the brightness on the same scale of existing lights? How much brighter are the new
lights?
Mayor Donchess
| believe the Kelvin is a temperature which translates into color; the 4,000 K being a more blue color and
brighter or perceived to be brighter than the 3,000’s.
President McCarthy
It has to do with the frequency of the lighting that is given off and how the human eye responds to that. |
don’t know what our mercury lights typically are.
Alderman Siegel
The temperature has to do with the radiated frequency of a black body radiator of heat. So if you heated
a perfectly black object to 4,000 K it would radiate at a particular color point. As far as the color of our
lights, it depends on their age.
Alderman Schoneman
| think the folks in quieter neighborhoods like the “romantic lighting” and hopefully we can find a way to
keep those places feeling like small town America.
