It amazes me how "experts" claim you should be safe from the rash of armed robberies if you are in brightly-lit areas, and yet that's exactly where the vast majority of those armed robberies have been occuring at night.
(http://www.kotv.com/pages/catimages/QT-Robbery-Admiral122005.jpg)
http://www.kotv.com/main/home/stories.asp?whichpage=1&id=95707
A number of big franchises nationwide (McDonalds, WalMart, Conoco-Phillips, Chevron, etc.) are undertaking what advertisers call "re-imaging" that involves enhancing their outdoor dazzle (increasing lighting to several times the nationally-recommended levels for their land use, effectively creating one huge lighted sign).
Next time a gas station or fast food joint tells your neighborhood group that you should accept their 1,000-Watt Metal Halide glare-bombs as "improved security", please let the Board of Adjustment know that these people are full of creek water.
Even the bad guys need light to find their victims.