Arizona republican., 1913-01-24
CITY COUNCIL AND CITIZENS MEET JOINTLY
Electric Lighting of North
 Central Avenue is Dis cussed and Protest Raised
 Against Non-Attention to West Washington Street

Tn agreeing to confer with the cit izens relative to the plan of providing an adequate system of lighting for North Central avenue. the city coun- ell meeting as the committee of the whole in open session last evening" found itself in a position of being the arbter in three cornered situa- tion which really did not exist. In the first place decided opposition crop ped out q the very outset to the proposition of adopting a central standard system in a fifty-two foot street on the score that it would seriously impede traffic. Then res idents and property owners of West Washington street opposed the i'm provement of North Central avenue unless standards were installed along West Washington street to the cap itol building and on Seventh avenue from the Santa Fe tracks to Five Points.
 Of the hundred or more citizens who crowded into the council cham Der not one advanced an argument against the improvement. the only fight on that score being that while
 
 with a modern lighting system there were other sections of the city which also should receive like benefits.
 When the meeting came to order a petition signed by property owners of Central avenue representing 44S2 lineal feet of property frontage was read in which the central lighting system was vigorously opposed. Speaking to the petition Isaac T. Stoddard said that it seemed to be the consensus of opinion that the placing of electric lighting standards in the middle of the roadway would prove a menace to traffic and con- siderably lessen the present capacity of the avenue. He also pointed out the danger that might arise upon oc- casion when the power was off and the lamps were dark, of automobiles and other conveyances running into the standards He also said that with the taking away of six or eight feet from the center of the street there always be danger of wagons and other vehicles getting into a pocket with disastrous results.
 J. w Walker said that he felt sure lHdL II lIle clustered DSHlS were lD be installed generally it would result in the bankrupting of the city. Speak ing of West Washington street he felt that there was quite as much frontage represented as on North Central avenue and that if there was going to be any electric lighting inn proVements West Washington street should beincluded with the rest. On the whole, though, he felt that the council would be doing it's duty, if it directed the placing of the cluster ed lights in the business dstrct. Phoenix is the best electrically lighted city in the United States out side of New York, today" said w. T. Smth. Why our Washington street is just as brilliantly lighted as New York, and there isn't another city that compares with it. It is all very well to talk of installing few hundred ornamental lighting standards but when the work is done you will have gone to a big expense and will wind up with a big bill to pay. But if Central avenue is to be lighted by the new system, so should West Wash ington street and Seventh avenue Frank Stewart said that he believ- ed that the majority of the people of Phoenix would be glad to see North Central avenue electrically lighted. He Continued on Page Six)