Community Safety – Lighting Matters

The safety plan for New Columbia includes exterior lighting.  With walkways and alleys, having the exterior lighting operational is an important component of the community’s safety plan.  Maintaining the lighting plan requires both an individual and a community commitment to support the lighting needs.

Porch lights:  Individual residents are encouraged to leave their front porch and back yard lights on at night.  Lighting is a proven deterrent to crime.  Studies show the cost of keeping exterior lights on overnight is minimal – probably less that it costs to charge your cell phone.

Single family homes – Alley lighting:  There are two types of alleyway lighting – 1) fixture attached to exterior of home and 2) brown light pole in back yard.  Electrical maintenance of these fixtures is the homeowner’s responsibility.

1)    The homeowner is responsible for bulb replacement.  These fixtures have electronic sensor and come on when it is dark.  Sensor may need cleaning if the light is on during daytime hours.

2)    Although these light poles have the same appearance as the other community exterior lighting, if the pole is in your backyard it is wired into the home’s circuit box.  These lights also have electronic sensor to come on when dark.  Due to the height of these poles, property management has agreed to provide bulb replacement services when necessary and will also check and clean sensors.  If your bulb is burned out, please contact property management (503-286-1500).

Community Alley, Pathway, and Common Area Lighting: There are brown pole lighting fixtures located throughout the community.  Each pole has an identification number painted on it.  These lights have sensors to come on in the dark.  Some also have motion sensors and only come on when there is movement near the fixture.  If you notice a light is out – you may want to go over and wave your arms underneath the fixture to ensure it is not one of the lights controlled by a motion sensor.  If the light is burned out, please make note of the identification number on the pole and report the outage to property management (503-286-1500).  Property management uses an outside vendor to replace burned out lights and generally the repair will be made within four business days.

Pathway Lighting:  Another source of pathway lighting is fixtures attached to the exterior walls of the multi family units.  If you notice a light is out, please make note of the closest apartment address and report it to property management (503-286-1500).

Street Lighting:  Street lights are maintained by the City of Portland.  These outages must be reported to the city in order to be corrected.  There are 2 identification numbers on each street light pole (a map and a pole number).  You will need to make note of both numbers.  When reporting a problem, please provide as much information as you can about the location, especially pole numbers, adjacent addresses, and side of the street.  You can report the problem either by calling the Street Light Repair hotline (503-823-5216) or using an online form.  Here is a link to the city’s website for street light maintenance:

www.portlandonline.com/transportation/index.cfm?c=47271&a=192905

Generally repairs will be made within a week.