The lights of a city skyline can be something to behold, but I wonder if the owners of all those office buildings ever wish their electric bill was smaller.
And it’s not just skyscrapers. There’s a strip mall not far from me where a State Farm insurance agent’s office has the lights on all night, every night.
I asked someone about this once and he said it’s so a burglar who breaks in can be seen from the outside. But that’s assuming anyone’s looking through the windows — never the case in this line of stores which close in the early evening and have no foot traffic otherwise. Besides, what is there to steal in an insurance agent’s office other than a computer or two? Seems like a problem that would be solved more easily with motion-sensitive cameras with night vision, which could also record the interloper — with a time stamp!
Deterrence can’t be the answer when it comes to all those floors of a skyscraper above street level. No one’s peeking into the law office or dental practice on the 32nd floor, regardless of how well lit the interior is, to see who’s doing what. Do you think at that height — even if you were watching from another building across the street — you could tell the difference between someone who’s supposed to be there (e.g. the cleaning crew) and a thief committing larceny?
If you’re going to argue turning the downtown lights off ruins the beauty of that skyline — I can appreciate the aesthetic — let’s only keep those buildings dark from 11pm till dawn. Even lamp stores can’t expect passersby to do window shopping in the middle of the night.
For landlords who couldn’t care less about the energy inefficiency, they should be reminded this would save them money, too.