Bringing in a little light can almost immediately make a place feel safer.
That was the message of Toledo Mayor Paula Hicks-Hudson on Friday as the last of 200 new LED street lights in south Toledo was installed.
Cheers rang out in the Old South End when the last of the street lights turned on for the first time.
"Everything was just so dark and kind of scary growing up. You couldn't just stand outside and go play. As soon as the lights came on you had to go inside,” said Brendon Ottney, who lives in the neighborhood.
But now, the Old South End is acting as the guinea pig for the City of Toledo in their goal to become a smart city.
"A smart city, by definition, is a city that uses data to make decisions about equipment and about how we do business,” said Toledo Mayor Paula Hicks-Hudson.
Bringing light to neighborhoods ridden with blight almost immediately makes it feel safer.
"These lights, what's nice about them with the new technology they're actually brighter than the lights we have up. They're more energy efficient and much more reliable,” said Dave Poska, Toledo Edison Operation Services Director.
And they'll last roughly 20 years.
Updates are happening throughout downtown too.
New security cameras throughout Promenade Park and around ProMedica headquarters are part of the new technology.
Mayor Hicks-Hudson says going into neighborhoods is just as important as making downtown safer.
