L.A. Logged 34,760 Broken Streetlight Reports This Year. Most Are Still Open.

Only 15,540 of the city's 311 streetlight repair requests had closed by Nov. 8, and those took a median 70 days.

Since New Year's Day, people in Los Angeles have reported a broken streetlight to the city 34,760 times. As of Nov. 8, 19,199 of those requests were still open.

That's from the city's own MyLA311 case data, published by the City of Los Angeles Information Technology Agency under a CC0 public-domain license as dataset 2cy6-i7zn. Only 15,540 of the requests, about 45%, had been closed. So the most common outcome for a dark streetlight reported this year is still no outcome.

The closed ones took a median of 70 days from report to close. That's the figure you'd quote if you wanted to sound reassuring. It only measures lights that made it to the finish line, though, and the 19,199 still waiting aren't in it.

The city files these under the request type "Streetlight Repair Services," one of dozens of MyLA311 categories, somewhere between graffiti removal and pothole complaints. The dataset's own description says requests come in by phone at 311, through the MyLA311 website and app, by email and through other channels. Each one gets a case number, and a reporter can choose to file anonymously.

Keep that case number. The city's case records also track statuses for a "Potential Duplicate" and a "Duplicate Confirm," which matters on a block where three neighbors report the same dark pole: the city's count measures requests, not individual lights.

Either way, the math for the person filing is plain. Of every 20 people who reported a dead streetlight in L.A. this year, 11 are still waiting on theirs.

Data: City of Los Angeles - Information Technology Agency (MyLA311), CC0, dataset 2cy6-i7zn, through Nov. 8.

Source: data.lacity.org, retrieved November 9, 2026.