I misread. New wild guess: poor construction of light that was only figured after the fact. Old sidewalk unable to accommodate neat new light in future. Also see: We almost got a library on a fault line.

@nomatophobic the light's actually still there... but it looks like the sidewalk is now missing. They're keeping me in suspense! Bastards.

Best guess: light went up, someone across the street complained about them, light went down. Poor communication on the city's part. See also: Sunset Cliffs benches. Awaiting the great Sanders response.

...(cont) The City of San Diego doubles its efforts, first for the light pole, now for, I don't know what.