I am a night owl, always have been i expect I always will be. Most nights I hang out in the city centre (Cape Town), and drive home on the N1. And the one thing really gets my goat when driving home is the Canal Walk shopping complex. When I drive past the complex at 4 in the morning, it’s lit up like a bloody Christmas tree, with every light from the shopping malls to the parking lamps still blazing brightly. Unless I missed the memo saying that there’s been a helluva extension to shopping hours, this is totally unacceptable.
I don’t have stats to go on, but my common sense tells me that surely there’s no one there. So why the hell are all those lights on? I’m sure that even the fat cats in charge must have heard a word or two about ‘this load shedding business’ the rest of us have to deal with? How many homes could run off the power being wasted on lighting up an empty mall at 3am? This especially pisses me off when I drive by the neon city only to get home and find the my own neighbourhood has been load shed.
My gut feeling is that malls should have some sense of social responsibility and turn their bloody lights off when the day is done. Even if they don’t turn them all off, every light helps. And if the malls don’t step up to the plate of their own accord, local government should be getting involved. Honestly, I can’t see why Canal Walk hasn’t come to the party on this issue - surely in today’s green friendly society this is a perfect opportunity for them to turn a negative into a positive by position the mall’s brand as one that cares not only about the environment, but about the surrounding communities.
So, I’m going to start a petition and pass it around and see how many people feel the same way I do, which is very, very upset annoyed angry -you pick one. If I can find them, I’ll be taking the result to the shopping mall management. For now, take a second and cast your vote on the issue here
http://www.polldaddy.com/p/535408/
Lester
