STAPLETON — The city completed a $3.1 million project to replace the Stapleton Houses' exterior lights with new LED ones to improve safety at the development, Mayor Bill de Blasio announced Thursday.
The project replaced the exterior lighting at the NYCHA development with 358 energy-efficient fixtures that will shine on the entrances, walkways and parking lots of the buildings.
"We are making tremendous strides in increasing safety throughout public housing communities, from significantly increasing security cameras to installing sustainable state-of-the-art lighting," De Blasio said in a statement.
"Exterior safety lighting is one vital tool in the larger effort to decrease violence and illegal activity in public housing."
The installation is part of the Mayor's Action Plan for Neighborhood Safety (MAP) to increase safety at 15 NYCHA developments across the city that accounted for 20 percent of all violent crime in public houses in 2014.
Since the program started two years ago, there have been no murders and shootings at the project at the Stapleton Houses, de Blasio said.
So far this year, there have been no reported rapes or burglaries at the project and assaults decreased by 11 percent, de Blasio said.
"As someone who grew up playing basketball and baseball at the Stapleton Houses, I know full well the benefit these services will provide the residents who call Stapleton home," District Attorney Michael McMahon said in a statement.
"With these state of the art light fixtures, law enforcement will better be able to protect the community and ensure the public safety of all Staten Islanders."
Other houses targeted by the program include the Polo Grounds Towers in Harlem, which completed their $4.8 million lighting project in March.
