Los Angeles crews repaired hundreds of streetlights after copper wire theft and an aging infrastructure left residents in the El Sereno and Lincoln Heights neighborhoods in the dark. 

Councilmember Ysabel Jurado, who represents the area, used more than $1 million from her discretionary fund to pay for the repairs. Her office said the project started in November 2025 and has helped shorten repair times and strengthen infrastructure in Boyle Heights, Eagle Rock, and Highland Park. Jurado plans to expand the project to downtown Los Angeles. 

“The City and residents agree: City services are public safety, and we refuse to let neighborhoods be left behind when it comes to basic infrastructure,” said Councilmember Jurado. 

CBS News California Investigates obtained and analyzed city data and found that more than 37,000 streetlight repair requests were submitted by the fall of last year. More than half were still waiting for service. At that time, the Bureau of Street Lighting said 15% of the system was affected by outages, and nearly half of service requests were due to wire theft. 

Jurado said crews also implemented more security measures to deter future theft and reduce the costly repairs. 

Earlier this month, council members Traci Park, Katy Yaroslavsky and Eunisses Hernandez announced similar projects in which they used their discretionary funds to repair and eventually install solar-powered lights in their districts. 

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