“It’s gotten to a point where it’s actually killing more people every year,” Shandas said. “And it’s often…Black and brown communities, older communities, communities that have been historically more marginalized that are facing the brunt of the impacts from urban heat.”Trapped heat is made worse by a lack of trees and greenery, and building designs that restrict air flow, creating neighborhoods with hot and stagnant air.
High disinvestment in neighborhoods like Harlem, Hunts Point, and East Flatbush—linked to historical practices like and redirecting public infrastructure resources to wealthier neighborhoods—intensifies the heat island effect in those areas. than other neighborhoods surrounding Central Park. To make matters worse, the density of cooling centers—designated public facilities like libraries and senior centers that were open during heat emergencies for New Yorkers to cool down—is lower in some of the most heat-vulnerable neighborhoods.
“We were able to show, at very high resolution, how areas that have been historically kind of disinvested,” Shandas said. He said their research found thatThe U.S. Environmental Protection Agency recommends