City of Detroit declares lights out for thousands of residents

A huge part of Motor City is about to go dark. Officials in Detroit have a plan to get the area's residents to live in a smaller space within the city by shutting off nearly half of the streetlights. The city's population is less than half what it was back in 1960, and almost 40 percent of its existing 88,000 street lights don't work. The cash-strapped city can't afford to fix them, and the initiative would save nearly $10 million a year. Maintaining a smaller city would help ease the strain on services like police and public transportation. However, the city can't force residents to move, and many feel the encroaching darkness will be a welcome environment to criminals.