Streetlight program tests community ownership

摘要

A community-led nonprofit in metro Detroit has begun installing solar-powered streetlights a decade after a utility repossessed over a thousand of the area's light poles. The effort is meant as a proof of concept in a quest to create a community-owned grid in a small city that's predominantly Black and has a median income of $16,000. "We want to have ownership; it's really important to us," said Shimekia Nichols, executive director of Soulardarity, which last week installed 10 solar-powered streetlights in Highland Park, bringing its total to 18.