Re: "So Dark"

by ~insom

I used to live in Flagstaff, AZ, which is (possibly the first) International Dark Sky City. There are city ordinances that require streetlights be below a certain luminosity, or within a certain range of colors, and they have to be spaced out by so much, etc. I'm not sure of all the requirements.

What I /do/ know is that the sky in Flagstaff was one of the nicest I've ever seen. I grew up far in the country, so the sky there at night was quite dark -- we could see the Milky Way from our back yard -- and Flagstaff came close, especially in the "suburbs," or what there was of them (Flagstaff has 60,000 people in total). I absolutely loved living there and miss the sky dearly.

However, the absence of sidewalks in Ottawa sounds truly terrible. There's a similar story where I am now, in Baton Rouge, where the sidewalks are either absent or completely mis-managed. Flagstaff at least had sidewalks on pretty much every street. I'd be nervous to walk on a street without sidewalks or streetlights, to be honest.

At any rate, stay safe!