Accuracy patrol.
"But in LA you could kill 70% of the lights and still not see anything except maybe the north star and the moon (smog permitting)."
It is a wildly inaccurate statement. For example, on a clear winter night, and from LA, you can see the Pleiades quite clearly and pick out some of the individual stars (if you have the eyesight for it). This is without any heroic light-killing efforts.