https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/xgxvdd/this-off-grid-project-is-bringing-streetlights-back-to-detroit

When Detroit gas and electricity utility DTE Energy repossessed nearly 1,400 street lamps in Highland Park in 2011, 12,000 residents were left in the dark. 

The 2.9-square-mile city in Michigan, which is surrounded by Detroit, was once home to Ford and Chrysler factories and proudly claims the title of the birthplace of the Model T. But after the downturn of the city’s auto industry, the area saw swift economic and population declines. By 2011, the city owed $4 million to DTE that it did not have. So, the utility settled with the city, wiping its debt in exchange for the removal of a swath of street lamps.