You are walking down the street at night and the streetlight comes on and you are standing in a circle of light on the sidewalk. That circle is the oldest spotlight in the city. The streetlight does not care who is standing in it. The streetlight does not audition you. The streetlight gives the same light to the man sleeping on the bench and the couple walking home from dinner and the kid doing tricks on a skateboard. The streetlight is the most democratic spotlight in New York. It shines on everybody and it sends nobody a bill.

You have seen a streetlight flicker. That stutter. That on-off-on that makes the whole block look like a horror movie for three seconds. The flickering streetlight is the city winking at you. The city saying I am tired but I am still here. I have watched a man play saxophone under a flickering streetlight on Houston Street and the light kept time with the music. On and off. On and off. The flickering streetlight was the best lighting designer I ever worked with because it made the ordinary look like a dream.

You know what a block looks like when the streetlight goes out. Dark. Not romantic dark. Not mysterious dark. Dangerous dark. A block without a streetlight is a block the city forgot. The streetlight is how you know the city is paying attention. The streetlight is the city saying I see you. I know you are there. When the light goes out the city is saying you are on your own. I played a corner once on Rivington Street where the streetlight was out for two weeks. Nobody stopped. Nobody listened. Nobody could see me. The streetlight is not just light. The streetlight is the audience.

You remember the old streetlights. The ones that buzzed. That electric hum that was the lullaby of the block. You could hear the streetlight before you could see it. The buzz told you the light was working. The buzz told you the block was alive. The new LED streetlights do not buzz. The new lights are silent and bright and they turn the whole street into a parking lot. The old light was warm. The old light was orange. The old light made everybody look good. The LED makes everybody look like they are being interrogated.

You walk past a streetlight and your shadow stretches out behind you like it is trying to go back to where you came from. The streetlight gives you a shadow and the shadow is your companion. Everybody walking under a streetlight has a companion they did not invite. I used to watch the shadows on Bleecker Street at one in the morning. The shadows were taller than the people. The shadows were more honest than the people. The shadow does not pretend to be somewhere else. The streetlight is the last thing the city gives you for free and it asks nothing in return except that you keep walking.