In August 2011, more than two-thirds of the street lights in Highland Park's residential neighborhoods and alleys were removed by the city, due to an inability to pay a $60,000 per month electric bill. The street lights were not only turned off, but decommissioned, or removed from their posts. The city advised residents to keep porch lights on to deter crime. The following year, a local 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, Soulardarity, was formed to restore streetlighting to the city's residential neighborhoods and alleyways in the form of solar street lights.