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Photo from online petition
One person's unlikely crusade can be another's fuel for ridicule. It took only a few hours for Margo Dalal to become an online pinata, whacked over her "light pollution" attack on Ford Field's nightly glow.
"I say keep the lights, because they’ve done a really good job of illuminating the privilege a lot of people have in this town," posts editor Aaron Foley at BLAC Detroit magazine.
There is a concept of “downtown privilege” – this idea that all of the powers that be should bend and bow to the precious downtown residents. The air of superiority is thick; you can hear the “my taxes pay for this” commentary miles further than you can see the damn lights. . . .
Does downtown privilege blind downtown residents to literally everything else going on in Detroit? It sure seems like it sometimes. . . .
Y’all wanted Detroit to be this big, progressive, booming metropolis, and that’s exactly what you’re going to get.
Abiut 1,100 supporters endorse this appeal at change.org by mid-afternoon Friday.
Foley lists "other lingering concerns" he sees as more pressing, including schools, crime "actual pollution" and "the health and livelihoods of neighborhoods outside downtown."
Original post, Friday morning:
There's a 1996 Seinfeld episode in which an annoying red neon sign from the Kenny Rogers Roaster restaurant across the street shines brightly in Kramer's Upper West Side apartment even with the shades drawn.
Meet a 2017 version of that show.
Detroit resident Margo Dalal is battling the nightly blue glow of the Ford Field roof that seems to be shining in the window of her residence about 3.5 miles away, the Detroit Free Press reports.
Dalal, 23,who admittedly is a little obsessed about the whole thing, on Tuesday launched a petition drive at Change.org asking that Ford Field's nighttime roof lighting be turned off, reports Keith Matheny. By Friday night, she had more than 1,100 signatures on the appeal that says:
Light pollution can have an adverse impact on the environment, affecting everything from wildlife behavior to human health. Whereas nighttime urban lighting can benefit safety and security, this stadium’s unshielded purple glow serves no purpose.
The petition will go to the Planning Department, the building inspector's office and Mayor Mike Duggan.
Dalal says she noticed the stadium's blue, skyward glow almost the instant the lights came online last August, part of a $2-million Ford Field renovation adding LED lighting with changeable colors and images to the rooftop.
"I live 3.5 miles away and have it shining through my window every night," she tells the paper. "It is pure light pollution. That's the definition of what blight is."
