Posted on 04/20/2024 7:02:14 PM PDT by thecodont
Lake Merritt is one of Oakland’s loveliest spots, especially during the evening golden hour when the “Necklace of Lights”comes to life around the lake. But over the last few weeks, the 126 ornate lampposts that anchor the lake’s signature circle of lights have been the target of vandalism.
The city believes thieves are toppling and stealing the almost century-old lampposts and ripping out the wires from the boxes at the bases. It’s a local chapter of a story happening around the country as valuable metals inside the lampposts are harvested for later resale.
Jean Walsh, a spokeswoman for the Oakland City Administrator’s Office, told SFGATE in an email that 10 lampposts “are down due to a combination of fallen trees and vandalism.” Additionally, the lighting boxes of approximately 40 other light poles were broken into.
She said “repairs are a top priority” and will include installing temporary lampposts while a vendor manufactures permanent replacements. In the vandalized lampposts still standing, she said, crews will replace the missing wires and reinforce the boxes with cement to guard against vandalism.
Walsh said replacement poles are expected to cost $15,000 each and that repairs are underway. As of April 17, “we have completed roughly 25% of the identified damage so far though we are finding more damage and stolen wire as we make repairs.”
When SFGATE visited the lake on a sunny Thursday morning, stumps of severed lampposts were easy to spot after just a few minutes. Walsh did not speculate as to how people have successfully cut off the stolen poles, but the visible clean break indicates that they used powerful tools to do so. (In Pasadena, authorities told the Los Angeles Times that thieves may have toppled similar lampposts made of bronze using chains pulled by trucks.)
(Excerpt) Read more at sfgate.com ...
Speculation is that it’s the copper wire they’re after.
This is the sort of thing you’d see in a Third World country.
Import Third world citizens. Become Third World culture.
It's NOT happening in Florida... and we don't have smash and grab or 'protesters' stopping traffic. Kent German needs to understand the San Francisco area has "millions of broken windows". Cities that don't enforce small laws are always shocked when the things THEY care about are also destroyed.
For Pete’s sake, there are cameras everywhere in cities now, yet these guys were never videoed?
But did they take the handles?
There's a small commercial building in the general neighborhood, recently occupied by a small market and vacated a few years ago. It would be a great place for another convenience store, but I guess the previous occupants thought the cost of doing business was too high, plus, there's no parking lot.
At any rate, neighbors have to regularly paint over the graffiti/tagging that appears on the walls of this vacated building, which is in good shape and not dilapidated. They are trying in their own way to avoid "broken window syndrome."
I hope another small business has the guts to occupy the space. They may have to install bollards like the store down the street a quarter mile, to prevent thieves from driving through the front door to smash in and grab the cash register and liquor.
Biden’s democrat and illegal migrants need money! So do blacks and whites since the migrants are soaking up all the “resources” that blacks and whites got used to getting.
The loss of the black vote alone should spell the END for the democrats for a long time. Let us pray!
Hell, even if they were videoed and caught... They’d be released on No Bail within hours.
There's something so sad - and so hopeful - about this. Thanks for sharing codont.
Lake Merritt is a treasure, scenically. The area around it was built out in the 1920s-30s also. The idea was a gracious, upmarket environment, a sort of Central Park.
It has however suffered from the general squalor of Oakland.
I lived there for a while in the early 90’s, off Grand Ave.
The Bronze Torpedo Tube Port from The USS Maine was stolen decades ago. It had been there much longer than the Lights.
Oakland was wonderful in the 40s & the late 50s started to slide.
My home town.
No, they weren’t homesick.
Yufes are targeting Lake Merritt's historic lampposts
What’s wrong with you people? It’s just stuff! /sarc
The bronze torpedo port (in front of the American Legion post) was there in 2021, the last time I passed there.
It was stolen in 2011 but recovered.
Thx. lots of fond memories around Lake Merritt - I learned to sail there back in the 40s. Lakeview School - All done with CA. Live in SE AZ - SE of Tucson.
“”valuable metals inside the lampposts are harvested for later resale.””
So......the valuable metals will be bought to make EV charging stations. The same criminals will then ransack the EV chargers, steal back the valuable metals, and sell them again.
The entrepreneurial spirit is alive and well.
What’s the big deal? They are insured. Just make a claim like you told burned out businesses in the BLM riots.
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