In any municipality of over twenty-five hundred population, New Orleans excepted, whenever more than fifty percent of the owners of the lineal frontage of real estate abutting on any street or portion thereof, one block or more in length, or of a district composed of one or more streets, highways, boulevards, or alleys, shall, by petition addressed to the governing authority, ask for the special illumination of the street or portions thereof and the installation, construction, equipping, and maintenance of additional street lights for that purpose, the governing authority may proceed to install and maintain the system as follows.