If you live near downtown Detroit and it’s on, you can’t miss the glow. Our folks have seen it as far as Abick’s in Southwest Detroit and east as West Village; and north as New Center.
The source of what we jokingly call Aurora Fordealis, a Detroit play on the Aurora Borealis or the Northern Lights, is the glow from the LED lighting of Ford Field in downtown Detroit. It is seemingly enhanced when there is cloud cover.
The lights were installed as part of a $2 million comprehensive light upgrade for the facility last year.
We’ve been meaning to get around to posting about this on the site and we did earlier on Instagram. However, a recent op-ed by Margo Dalal in the Detroit News highlighted the situation. She believes that Ford Field isn’t compliant with local ordinances.
Ford Field should be more responsible. In fact, it’s the law. According to the General Illumination Standard in the Detroit Zoning Ordinance (Sec. 61-14-278), “All reasonable measures shall be taken to ensure that the off-site spillover of light and nightglow are minimized to the greatest extent possible.”
Ford Field is far from compliant. This ordinance should be enforced.
Not included in the letter is that Dalal has also started a Change.org petition that you can find here. As of this writing, it has 68 signatories.
What are your thoughts?
