A Tree Glows in Brooklyn Heights

By on November 3, 2009 4:54 pm in Brooklyn Heights

montabuestbid_treelights More than 15,000 LED lights were installed on nine trees along Montague Street today to light up the area and provide holiday cheer. The installation is a pilot program and if it successful this year, it may expand across the Montague Street Business Improvement District next year.

“The BID is excited to offer this lighting program during the dark months of the year, and we’re particularly pleased that we can do so while also using sustainable technologies,” said Chelsea Mauldin, executive director of the Montague Street BID, in a press release.

The lights will remain up until early February.

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  • nelson

    Why Blue?

  • ABC

    had I seen the plan on paper, I would have said that blue was an awful idea. but I was wrong — really cool irl

  • Billy Reno

    These are the decorations meant for the Holidays of 2010, right?

  • Anonymous

    Maybe the lights will slow-down the crime wave.

  • nabeguy

    Who released that press? Are the gutters of Montague Street now flowing with ink? Love the lights, but if the BID really wants to spread some holiday cheer, they should announce that they negotiated a moratorium on commercial rent increases.

  • the banned

    nabeguy, you’re such an effin’ downer.
    Love the lights luv, keep up the good work!

  • jim

    LOVE the Lights !!! !!! Family comin’ to town for the first time this weekend & it will be a nice addition as i tour them around our Beautiful Hood !!!

  • ABC

    the BID can no more negotiate a moratorium on commercial rent increases than they can negotiate a wage freeze for you nabeguy. those are independent property owners who can ask what they want for their stores. we may wish they charged $10psf and Montague St was full of merry ole shoppes — and that 3 bedroom apartments were 950 a month — but that’s not likely going to happen and we can’t hold the BID responsible.

  • promenade

    yes yes…but why just 8 trees? It looks, um, sporadic and unfinished.

  • x

    They should hire a santa claus to sit in the middle of Montague Street (maybe by the old Heights Bookstore/former Ricky’s costumes) to spread some holiday cheers!

  • Dave

    The blue lights are just plain awful-looking. Blue-white light will only look halfway decent when there is snow on the ground; yellow-white light is warmer and more inviting. But, dear BID, why any lights? Why not hire a landscape architect to do some more creative lighting of the trees? I for one do not want my neighborhood to look cheap and these blue lights certainly are cheapening the look!

  • nabeguy

    As a former BID member of 8th Street in the city, I can speak from experience that not all of their ideas are necessarily well-thought out. When the 8th St. BID decided to expand the sidewalks in the name of allowing for greater pedestrian flow, they eliminated a lane of traffic that had previously been used by trucks making store deliveries, and the business owners howled. And who pays for the BID’s? The landlords, who turn around and pass on the cost to their tenants.

  • Peter

    I think the lights look good.

  • http://www.flickr.com/photos/theyardie/298366254/ David

    This makes me miss the Spicy Pickle sign . . .

  • bornhere

    I think the lights look fine, and I think if every tree had been given the LED treatment, it would have been a bit too much. Even with the problems of empty/not great stores on Montague, the lights at least look like there’s some neighborhood interest/commitment. Does anyone know if they’re on all night?

  • Remsen

    Sort of an odd holiday color, but better than nothing. Maybe we will get an LED light store on Montague as a result?

  • http://instaputz.blogspot.com ts

    Where are the lights up so early? Isn’t it customary to wait until after Thanksgiving?!

  • Dave

    Taste is subjective, of course. I still say the lights are the wrong color…

  • promenade

    I don’t know about all night – but they are def on all day, even in full sunlight…ridiculous. And a lighted tree here and there, over several blocks, just looks plain stupid.

  • nelson

    Still think Blue Lights kind of throw a rather gastly glow….why not white?! doesn’t send a look of holiday wonder to me

  • Josh

    Critics abound – here is one vote for liking the lights and appreciating something that makes the corridor more inviting

  • bornhere

    Even though I rather like the lights, I think part of the problem is with LEDs: we had the C7 wannabes on our (indoor) tree last Christmas, thinking they were all retro-licious, and all they did was create points of color, give off zero light, and make the tree, itself, look black. Very moody, but not great.
    And it seems they are on 24/7.

  • Ron

    The tree lights look really tacky. Like an amusement park.
    Why not white lights? Why “fun house” dayglow blue???