Lights on the Lake

12-5-08 I got the idea for my final project from Gino's last story/blog about the Christmas tree in Clinton Square. He mentioned this year energy efficient lights would be used to decorate, I immediately thought of another area attraction that uses a lot of lights, Lights on the Lake, and wondered if it would be making the switch. It turns out that they are. Professor Nicholson challenged me to challenge the concept that "green is good", so I went into the piece with the idea that I would challenge it by taking the angle that it is really expensive. I met with Onondaga Lake Park superintendent, Dale Grinolds, and after the initial "green is good" speech he told me exactly what I expected, LED bulbs (the more efficient bulbs) are about four times more expensive than older C-7 or C-9 bulbs (regular ones you'd have on your tree). But then he told me another reason they are switching that makes a lot of sense: they look better. So that is the angle I went with, green isn't just good for the environment, its easy on the eyes too.



There's another change on the way that visitors probably won't be as happy with ...