Clarence illuminates Watauga Street on Monday.
By CRAIG MILLAR FEB 25, 2016
RALEIGH—The City Council was overwhelmed Wednesday by Oakwood, Mordecai, Prince Hall, and Blount Street residents demanding that the City return kerosene lamps to the historic neighborhoods for street lighting purposes. After residents on a subcommittee of Raleigh’s Historic Development Commission voted down replacing streetlights with LED lights, some of the more vocal residents of the quaint neighborhoods stormed City Hall, demanding a return to lights “powered by explosive, aromatic liquids in the benzene family,” according to 19th-century Realtor Gail Wiesner. ” Other demands included replacing garages with small buggy sheds and asphalt streets with cobblestones “bumpy enough to shred a carburetor,” and installing an anesthetic-less dental office on Person Street.