And around and around we go.
In an interview last week, transportation spokeswoman Adrienne Barnes corrected the already confused record a few minutes later, telling me the floodlight has been repaired and will be returned to Orchard Street.
I hesitated to ask the next question: Will it be repaired so drug dealers can't cut the wires again?
"That's where public works comes in," Barnes answered.
At that point, I wanted to scream.
City Councilman William H. Cole IV told me that when the light was on Orchard Street and working, "the drug activity dispersed." Cole, who also got Dunn's string of e-mails, immediately called David E. Scott, the public works director. "It may not be his department, but he understands you can't throw up a white flag and say we give up" the councilman said.
Dunn said the light had been returned last night but was still dark. Public works spokesman Kurt Kocher said, "We've done everything possible" to protect the lights. He said dealers will continue to break them, "and will do it repeatedly."
