Dear Editor: I am a resident of Jersey City writing to request assistance in remedying a most unpleasant situation. The blinding klieg-style lighting at the Essex Street Hudson-Bergen Light Rail station is disrupting our sleep and our health, and we are deeply disturbed that the design of the project has given little consideration to those of us living in the neighborhood. We request your help in reducing the intensity of the lighting to a reasonable level without compromising public safety, so that we can sleep without the blinding light keeping us awake at all hours of the night and causing headaches. It was just during the past week that the over 50 lights at the Essex Street station have been turned on and left to blaze all night without any warning or notification; my pregnant wife and I are already experiencing adverse health effects. The station is just yards from our windows and is lit by a wastefully excessive number of extremely bright lights that flood our apartment, disrupting our sleep and causing headaches. The intensity is similar to that used for night baseball games or a movie shoot. Not only are the lights excessive, they indicate an excessive wastefulness of money and energy that is at odds with the spirit of public transportation, especially to residents living nearby. Placed two apiece atop poles placed 10-12 feet apart, the lights render what could be a charming neighborhood station into a symbol of halogen wastefulness and an aesthetic eyesore. Why is so much energy being wasted (for a public transportation project, no less) when there are people in dire need of services that could be paid for with money burnt away 15 hours a day? Furthermore, the lights are directed upward, not downward like most of the other lights in the city, and thus shine directly into people’s bedrooms. The lights at the stop under construction at the Arts Center (Harsimus Cove) stop are all downward facing. Why this design in a commercial area when residents on Essex Street are inflicted with blinding levels of light left to blaze all night? Fewer than half of the lights would be sufficient to light the station, and sufficient lighting could be achieved with less wattage. That the lighting is unsuitable for a residential neighborhood is not surprising; ours is the sole residential block through which the Hudson-Bergen Light Rail runs in its 20-odd mile planned route. While we are avid supporters and users of public transportation, the Light Rail’s design and construction have been fraught with disregard for residents of our community. The sidewalk on the north side of Essex Street has been left torn up since last July, creating both a health hazard and rendering disabled access impossible. Representatives from 21st Century Light Rail have misrepresented the scope of the project to the community, antagonizing and alienating those who would be the project’s most natural champions. It is for these reasons that we request your help. We ask for help in adjusting the lighting in the Essex Street station to mitigate its obtrusion upon those living nearby. This could be achieved either by lowering the intensity of the wattage, using softer bulbs, by darkening certain lights after midnight, by placing decorative “caps” that will direct light downward, or by permanently reducing the number of lights at the station. We believe that this station was designed, unfortunately, without considering that there would be people living adjacent, and we ask in good faith for help in obtaining adjustments that will minimize that adverse impact on residents’ health, the environment and the aesthetic considerations of the station. We greatly appreciate any help in this matter, and we are hoping that the Light Rail can achieve its mission as an environmentally friendly, neighborly, energy efficient example of a successful public transportation project. Edward Maguire