downtown cuyahoga falls ~ stairs lighting issue

Below are photos that I made in May 2022 ( this year ) of the stairway running along the south side of
the old Falls Theater building ( now home to The Workz ) from the 2nd St. parking lot to Front St.
Also a Google satellite image for further reference.

SIX of the eight footlights that are necessary for citizens and visitors to safely navigate these stairs at night are either non-functional, missing a bulb or boarded up in a haphazard manner. This creates an incredibly precarious situation for any citizen or visitor utilizing these stairs to access Front St. or their home at night.

Yes, we have the beautiful new one point three million dollar elevator/stairway structure for folks to use to gain access to Front St. from the Green Parking Deck. But the stairway that runs along the south side of the Workz building still exists, looks awful and is being neglected. I think it would be more cost effective to address the issues with this stairway than to get rid of it altogether ( which would certainly be an option ).
It would also, most likely, be more cost effective to address the issues with this stairway than it would be to absorb the cost of litigation brought by a citizen or visitor who breaks their neck while utilizing these stairs at night to access Front St.

I certainly realize that there are budget constraints in all city departments.
However, can you really put a cost on citizen and visitor safety?…

Google satellite image (click to enlarge)

night time, looking down from top of stairs

day time looking down from top of stairs

night time view of non-lighted area between The Workz building and Commonwealth Properties building

day time view of non-lighted area between The Workz building and Commonwealth Properties building

haphazardly boarded up, missing screws, rusty….
is this the image the city wants to portray to
visitors utilizing this stairway???….

below are photos that I made in 2018 of the stairway running alongside
the old Falls Theater building ( now home to The Workz ) from the 2nd St. parking lot to Front St.
~ for comparison to what the stairs and night time lighting look like today as seen by the above photos which I made on 05/22/2022 ~

day time, looking down from top of stairs

night time looking down from top of stairs

( reminder: this situation was encountered back in 2018 and is shown here strictly for reference )
One light that is supposed to help light up the top of the stairs at night is boarded up.

( reminder: this situation was encountered back in 2018 and is shown here strictly for reference )
Boards in boarded up light are missing screws.

( reminder: this situation was encountered back in 2018 and is shown here strictly for reference )
I was walking down the stairs one day at 6 PM and encountered this scene.
One of the boards covering the non-functional lights was lying on top of the ledge. There was nobody around who was working on this light. Had I not passed by, realized the situation and taken the board from the ledge and thrown it into the dumpster, it could easily have been knocked off the ledge onto a parked car below, or knocked onto the path of people walking down the stairs. Had it been in the walking path at night, when the stairs is not lit up due to non functional stair lighting, someone, including children, could have stepped onto one of the screws and gotten injured. This is surely a path to possible litigation, which can be avoided by properly addressing this issue.

( reminder: this situation was encountered back in 2018 and is shown here strictly for reference )
Screws sticking out of board which had been placed
on top of ledge were sharp and rusty.

some of the lights are covered with pieces of plexiglass that look like they were scavenged from a dumpster. Maybe consider a nice looking steel grate outdoor stairwell light cover that would not only be appealing to the eye, but would be less prone to being kicked in by some random drunk or vandal.

Some of the plexiglass is cracking and breaking off in the corners creating dangerously sharp shards that may end up in the walking path of citizens using the stairs and could potentially injure someone.

below are photos and descriptions of the stairs, half coated with non slip coating

non slip coating, to increase shoe grip during icy or rainy conditions, applied to top half of stairway

non slip coating contains small particles to give surface more grip

The non slip coating stops halfway down the stairway. The bottom half of the stairs was not coated for some reason. Perhaps whoever did the job thought that the bottom half of the stairs was immune to ice and other weather related slipperyness? Or maybe they just ran out of coating material and thought; “half the stairs coated is better than none of the stairs coated”? Does this make ANY sense to those that are reading/looking at this?

Below is an image of the newly transformed downtown, contrasted with an image of a detail of the stairway running alongside the Falls Theatre building, which citizens and visitors can use to access, day or night, the beautiful new historic downtown area.

The city has put 13.8 million dollars into revitalizing the downtown area.
It was beautifully designed, expertly constructed and looks great.

After living in the downtown area for 24 years I’ve grown to be proud of it and consider it my neighborhood. I’d like to see the city pay as much attention to the things that affect us citizens that live downtown as well as those who come to visit the revitalized area, as they have to the revitalization process.

The lighting issue needs to be addressed on this stairway that runs alongside the old Falls Theater. It serves as an access for citizens who utilize this daily to get to their places of residence downtown, and also for those citizens and others who are visiting the newly transformed and historic downtown area.
It might also be nice, and appealing to the eye, if you were to paint the cement wall that the stair railing hangs on. That would serve to cover the ugly rust stains as well, which appear in various spots all the way down the wall.

Perhaps ‘the fun flows here’, but let’s have citizen/visitor safety flow here as well.