The city of Los Angeles has had difficulty addressing copper wire thefts from streetlights, including lights near City Hall.  (photo by Edwin Folven )

Homeowners groups came together on a Zoom call with representatives from Councilwoman Katy Yaroslavsky’s office on April 29 to find out when broken streetlights in their neighborhoods will be repaired, and the answer was not what they were hoping to hear.

The city of Los Angles is facing significant financial impacts with the 2025-26 budget, and it will likely translate into reductions in city services. The budget calls for approximately 1,600 employee layoffs, including 30 positions in the Bureau of Street Lighting. The city is trying to determine the best way to maintain services while using fewer resources. No timelines were provided as to when crews will return to specific neighborhoods to repair streetlights.

Yaroslavsky’s district director George Hakopiants discussed how the city is conducting streetlight repairs with representatives of homeowners groups in the Hancock Park, Brookside, Windsor Village, Wilshire Park, Miracle Mile, Sycamore Square, La Brea-Hancock and Carthay communities. The council office is using discretionary funding to expedite emergency repairs in neighborhoods experiencing significant problems, and streetlights have been fixed recently in portions of the Miracle Mile, Carthay and Wilshire Park. Cindy Chvatal-Keane, president of the Hancock Park Homeowners Association, said crews have not been to Hancock Park since last November, and since then copper wire thefts and other problems have caused blackouts on entire streets.

“Carthay Circle and Wilshire Park did get some repairs, but most of us are in the dark,” she said. “We can’t keep playing whack-a-mole. We’ve got to have a plan, especially with all these budget cuts coming up.”

Hakopiants said residents should continue notifying the district office to identify locations that need to be prioritized for repairs. The council district office will work to ensure repairs are scheduled equitably in each neighborhood in the district.

The city of Los Angeles has more than 223,000 streetlights and the Bureau of Street Lighting reported in October 2024 that it can take up to 146 days to make repairs in areas where there are multiple streetlights out. The bureau has a maintenance staff of approximately 200 people, according to the report. In fiscal year 2023-24, the Bureau of Street Lighting recorded 9,825 requests of lights out due to theft and vandalism, accounting for 30% of all street lighting incidents reported.

Residents in the virtual meeting said broken streetlights are a public safety issue. Kari Garci, a member of the Miracle Mile Residential Association, said she has been cataloging all streetlights that are out in the Miracle Mile and reporting them to the council office and the police. Senior lead officer Tyler Shuck of the LAPD’s Wilshire Division participated in the meeting and said authorities have difficulty in addressing copper wire theft from streetlights because the outages are not always reported by the Bureau of Street Lighting or members of the public to the police department. He added that blackouts on streets are a public safety concern and that he will work more closely with residents and the council office to identify areas where outages are occurring. Once neighborhoods with outages are identified, police can deploy additional patrols to those areas.

“Part of the reason why burglaries are happening is because, even though when the lights are working, it’s still a poorly lit street. Lighting is always a factor, so that comes into play in our extra patrols, and we’re aware of that,” Shuck said. “What’s happening is when [Bureau of Street Lighting crews] come out to replace it and to fix it, they’re just fixing it and it’s not becoming a reported crime. Let’s get this documented, because once it’s documented, then we can get the resources we need and go from there.”

To contact shuck, email 40740@lapd.online.

Chvatal added that she is also documenting streetlights that are out of service in the Hancock Park area and is submitting requests to the council office and city. In a survey conducted on April 29, she said large sections of Rossmore Avenue, Third Street, Muirfield Road, June Street, Oakwood Avenue, Cahuenga Boulevard, Rosewood Avenue, Rimpau Boulevard and Clinton Street are experiencing outages.

“[The city has] to make this a priority,” Chvatal-Keane said. “We understand the city is in a crisis, but when you’re in a crisis, there has to be a plan to work your way out of this.”

In the meantime, residents are encouraged to continue reporting street light outages to the city by calling 311 or using the 311 app, and can report them to Yaroslavsky’s District Office by calling (323)866-1828 and emailing councilmember.yaroslavsky@lacity.org.

Hakopiants said the outages near schools and sensitive areas will be prioritized, and he plans to work more closely with the Bureau of Street Services and the LAPD to ensure all instance of copper wire theft and streetlight vandalism are reported to the LAPD.

The City Council started budget considerations this week, and the amount of funding for services such as streetlight repair will become clearer as negotiations proceed. The city 2025-26 budget must be approved by June 1.

Lights on many streets in Hancock Park have been out for weeks,
residents said. (photo courtesy of the HPHOA )