Electric outlet (plug) on a neighborhood streetlight

I've mentioned how Salt Lake City has a program where within a neighborhood, residents on a street can band together and agree to install neighborhood-scaled streetlights oriented to lighting sidewalks and supporting pedestrian activity.

The city will provide some financial support, but what makes the program unique is rather than having to dig up the entire street to lay utility infrastructure, each light is connected to the grid via the house on the lot where the light is installed, and going forward, the individual houseowner takes on the responsibility of paying for the electricity (and changing burned out light bulbs).

The light pole designs vary but many are similar to what in DC is called Washington Globe.

For holidays ranging from July 4th to Christmas, people often decorate the lightpoles and/or replace the white light bulbs with green or red bulbs.


Not all of the  lights include electric outlets (plugs) at the base, but many do.  This supports lights for decorating the pole.

The reason I mention this is beyond the community engagement element, it's something I brought up in DC about 17 years ago, when I was a committee chair for the H Street Main Street commercial district revitalization program.

Instead of having to create separate and temporary electricity infrastructure for street festivals and other special events, I said, "why not put electric outlets (plugs) in the streetlight network and treeboxes? "

This seemed especially prescient given that a redesign of the H Street NE streetscape was underway.

But it still hasn't been done as a matter of course.  And definitely not when the new H Street NW streescape was constructed in the early part of the 2010s.

Apparently, the local utility in DC isn't in favor, even though the city pays the bills.  And with lightpoles in a commercial district, to restrict inappropriate use, you could lock the access to the plug, so it would only be used for special events.

It's not uncommon in privatized public spaces, like the treeboxes in the CityCenterDC development, to see plugs in planters and treeboxes, although the below example is from the Sugarhouse district in Salt Lake City.