Community Update – The evening of September 16th

Tompkins Avenue Grab & Go actually kept their awning llights off all day yesterday. For a moment, we felt a sense of relief. But then, around 7:45–8:00 pm, while settling in to watch Netflix, our bedroom suddenly became unbearably bright again!!!

This was both shocking and infuriating. My husband went downstairs to address it immediately!!! He explained the issue again, and within minutes a store representative came outside and manually switched off the awning lights. The rep even asked us what time we’d prefer the awning lights to be turned off. We made it clear: 9 pm should be the cut-off — not turning the lights on at 8 pm only to blaze until 2 am when the store closes.

It’s worth noting: for the past 8 weeks, I have been told that the problem was electrical — that the awning lights were tied to the security gate system, requiring an electrician to separate them. Clearly, that story no longer holds. If the lights can be turned off manually, then there’s no excuse for them flooding our homes with unwanted brightness late into the night.

We remain vigilant!!! This is about basic respect, health, peace of mind, and community well-being.

I’m glad to report that we were able to rest peacefully for a second night in a row.

Thank you all for standing with us as we push for accountability and lasting solutions.