Lights aren’t exactly cheap either way; even years ago they would be about $100 a pole just for the light, modern LED ones are about that [1] and cities can have thousands of them [2]. For example, the 250,000 lights in NYC at $125 per light (without even considering installation) would get you about $30M.

[1] https://www.edn.com/weighing-the-costs-of-led-street-lights/

[2] https://www1.nyc.gov/html/dot/html/infrastructure/streetligh...

Interesting! I guess that makes sense but I definitely would have underestimated that cost.

In this case the cost seemed to apply in part to 3,000 cameras. But solely based on the article, it's hard for me to tell what portion of that $30 million went to upgrades/maintenance and what portion went to the cameras. However it does clearly say it would be another $7 million to maintain the cameras over the next four years.

For anyone who doesn't want to do the math, that's $10,000/installation and $600/light/year maintenance.

Earthworks / installation costs are probably higher than material costs.