There have been several well-known versions of "The Philadelphia Story" over the past 250 years. In 1776, the city hosted the signing of the Declaration of Independence. This was followed in 1940 by the legendary Katharine Hepburn movie about a wealthy socialite living on Philadelphia's Main Line. The 2004 version of The Philadelphia Story involves the city's efforts at providing a street lighting system that approaches 100 percent reliability. The program is known as "Every Light...Every Night." The goal, quite simply, is to operate every one of the city's 100,000 streetlights properly every night of the year. To date, the results have been impressive. The city scored a 99.4 percent "on" rate in 2003, bringing the three-year average for the program to 99.5 percent (Table 6). Reaching this goal, however, is not so simple. It requires the constant efforts of scores of people and the continuous allocation of resources by the city and its contractors. The full participation of the local electric utility is also essential, since it must provide dependable electrical service to the street lighting system on a daily basis.
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