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Comment by village-idiot | Hacker News Reader

What’s interesting is that Berkeley used some LEDs from the same company, and I assume they’re not facing the same budgetary pressure that Detroit was.

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The bay bridge project could have sourced the main steel parts for the eastern span replacement from US manufacturers but chose to go with a foundry in Shanghai. The USW, with all the pro-union talk in the Bay Area, cheap was chosen. Money talks.

I don't know if cheap is the right word for a project with a 2,500% cost overrun[1]

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/San_Francisco–Oakland_Bay_Brid...

All of the lights in Berkeley are failing as well.

They’re being replaced under warranty.

Cities are all facing budgetary pressure, or should be. We don't want them overspending arbitrarily.

The vendor promised a certain warranty. If the due diligence was done, and the cities were happy with the price paid and the terms of the warranty, hopefully the vendor stands behind the product.

So is the Detroit Public Lighting Authority: "We want to make sure that absolutely the taxpayers of the city are not being asked to pay anything more than they are legally obligated to."

But: '"This deadline has come and gone, and Leotek ceased all communications with the PLA," the suit reads.'

Company website has both: "Leotek Electronics USA LLC", and "Leotek is a subsidiary of LiteOn Technology Corp."

https://leotek.com/about-leotek/

IANAL, but that would seem to be a contradiction.

I'd give generous odds on a bet that the end of Leotek, and Detroit's recovery efforts, are not far in the future.

I don't see how it's a contradiction - it's the same as Google LLC being a subsidiary of Alphabet, and LEOTEK ELECTRONICS USA LLC is listed as a Sub-subsidiary in LiteOn's financial reports: https://www.liteon.com/storage/document/document/2017lite-on...

It appears the LLC was formed in 2014, after Leotek merged with LiteOn: https://www.liteon.com/storage/document/document/engfile-d21...

Berkeley isn't cold af in the winter, maybe that helps.

I don't expect it would, generally heat reduces LED lifespan, but not cold. If it's really cold, LEDs will struggle to turn on, but AFAIK it doesn't cause any long-term damage. (You can get consumer LEDs designed to operate in very cold conditions, e.g. from FEIT.)

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