Melissa Simeon

March 7, 2021

Writing 39C

Professor Dubey

Cooling Down the L.A. Urban Heat Island

“Scorching temperatures... bake Southern California on Sunday, with a record of 121

degrees set in Los Angeles County” states the NY Times after the National Weather Services’

report on September 6, 2020 of last year. Every year, Americans overhear about record breaking

heat as temperatures in metropolitan areas continue to exponentially rise. According to NASA,

“Nineteen of the warmest years have

occurred since 2000.” As seen in Figure 1,

NASA’s Global Land Temperature Index,

reveals the exponential increase of Earth’s

temperatures since 1880, with a notable

spiked increase from 1960 to 2020 when

Figure 1: NASA illustrates the planet's exponential
industrialization and urbanization began. temperature increase in climate.

Despite the abolishment of slavery during this time, many institutions continued to

exercise discrimination against African Americans, effectively barring them from equal

opportunities and challenging their lives with injustice. Later on, these discriminatory injustices

were challenged in the U.S. Supreme Court with Plessy v. Ferguson and Brown v. Board.

However, despite these legislative wins, African Americans were still faced with injustice as

many embedded their practices with systematic racism. Many housing practices established

racial covenants, refusing to lease to African Americans unless all homeowners agreed.
 When the practice of racial covenants was overturned in the U.S. Supreme Court,

Roosevelt’s New Deal established the Home Owners’ Loan Corporation (HOLC). This

government corporation was created in order to support real estate and property values after the

Great Depression by aiding citizens with loans for mortgages.

However, the corporation utilized previous

racial covenants in order to establish

redlining, in which HOLC maps were

created in order to grade neighborhoods and

determine which were considered safe and a

risk to give loans to. Rather than giving

equal opportunity to people of color like

Figure 2: A HOLC map depicting the redlining of
Los Angeles and its systematic housing African Americans, this corporation
segregation
favorably gave White neighborhoods a high

A grade or colored their communities green to represent safe loans. African Americans and POC

communities were more likely to get a D grade or be colored red for risk. Consequently, people

of color were more unlikely to get loans for home mortgages. Despite the issue of redlining later

being addressed by Lyndon B. Johnson’s Fair Housing Act of 1968, many people of color still

suffer from former acts of redlining today.

Record breaking temperatures are more likely to occur in large, populated metropolitan

areas like Los Angeles as they are identified to be an urban heat island. An urban heat island is

an urban or suburban area that carries higher temperatures than its rural vicinity. The

Environmental Protection Agency defines urban heat islands as cities that carry 1-7°F higher

temperatures in the day and 2-5°F higher temperatures at night, in contrast to its rural neighbors.
This urban heat spectacle occurs because of the urban development that continues to grow in

cities. As cities progress in modernization, natural vegetation like grass and trees are lost, as

pavements for

sidewalks, roads, and

housing are built. This

loss of vegetation in

exchange for surfaces

that retain heat results Figure 3: This image provided by the EPA illustrates the comparison
of evapotranspiration on urban material and natural vegetation.
in loss of shade and

decreased evapotranspiration. Moreover, aside from urban materials, urban geometry may result

in more heat being retained in the city, influencing “wind flow, energy absorption,” and “long-

wave radiation” (Reducing Urban Heat Islands: Compendium of Strategies).

However, despite this increase of temperature in metropolitan areas, urban areas still face

a heat disparity due to past accounts of redlining. Former neighborhoods that were previously

redlined are more likely to live in outdated housing stock and live in underdeveloped

neighborhoods in comparison to their White counterparts. Therefore, these communities housing

people of color are more likely to face a heat disparity as they have less green spaces, inadequate

cooling amenities, lack of proper insulation, and more.

Former redlined communities are more vulnerable to extreme heat. Studies have shown

the conclusive correlation between HOLC maps in the 1940s and urban vegetation in 2010,

highlighting the issue of affluent, Whiter neighborhoods having more green spaces than
communities housing people of color (Nardone, Anthony, et al.). Therefore, demographics

within these communities housing the

elderly, youth, the ill, low-income, etc. are

more likely to be vulnerable to heat

illnesses. Heat illnesses including heat

stroke, heat exhaustion, heat cramps, or

heat rash may result in damage of the

“brain” or “other vital organs” (CDC

Figure 4: The National Weather Service Heat Index Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) About
depicts the danger of temperatures of humidity and
temperature combined that urban heat islands face. Extreme Heat). With the lack of proper
Longer exposure in extreme dangerous
temperatures results in heat illness. cooling amenities in outdated housing

stock of former redlined communities, lack of shade, and visible lack of cooling centers, low-

income POC residents are more susceptible to extreme heat. In fact, according to the EPA,

“1,300 deaths per year in the United States are due to extreme heat.” Moreover, “heat-related

emergency room visits increased by 35% between 2005 and 2015, “with disproportionate

increases among African Americans, Asian Americans and Latinx residents due to the

inequitable impacts of extreme heat.”’ (LA Times)

To combat extreme heat from the urban heat island effect as a result of systematic racism

within the housing crisis, in addition to the creation of a heat disparity between communities

housing low-income people of color and affluent Whites, residents turn to bathing more

frequently, walking to parks near affluent neighborhoods for shade, driving in their cars with the

AC on, or leaving the fan on the entire day in the house. However, despite these efforts to cool

down, these endeavors only exacerbate the urban heat island effect further. Finding relief
through these means only doubles carbon emissions and electrical consumption, therefore

trapping more pollutants within the atmosphere and contributing to the greenhouse effect.

Moreover, just last year, “Los Angeles Department of Power reported 70,000 customers

experiencing outages and Southern California Edison had 18,629 customers without power” due

to the large scale of individuals attempting to relieve themselves of extreme heat (McGraw and

Chapman).

To mitigate the urban heat island consequences, many of Los Angeles’ own residents

have participated in valiant efforts in order to alleviate heat for the prospective future. For

instance, Los Angeles’ non-profit organization, City Plants, offers individuals, neighborhoods,

businesses, schools, and more, the ability to request a tree in order for it to be planted in any

desired area. With numerous programs available to various communities, the non-profit

organization plants trees at no charge and partners with the city of L.A. in order to ensure the

maintenance of the trees planted. The non-profit organization North East Trees, is partnered with

City Plants in order to refurbish Los

Angeles’ urban canopy with a focus in

“Baldwin Village, West Adams, and

surrounding communities.” In addition to

urban canopy regrowth, the non-profit

Figure 5: Many locals volunteer at City Plants in
organization, Tree People focuses on order to refurbish the tree canopy.

protecting natural parks and sets to educate the youth in order to inspire them to take

environmental initiative.

There are many non-profit organizations concentrated on refurbishing Los Angeles’

urban canopy for the continuous benefits they provide. Trees are able to provide shade, provide
oxygen while absorbing pollutants like carbon dioxide, conserve energy, and more. According to

Tree People, “Trees cool the city by up to 10°F.” Moreover, the USDA states that about 100

million mature trees saves an estimated “$2 billion annually in reduced energy costs.” Thus, not

only are urban communities able to cool down from mature trees, but the cooling that trees

provide, prevents the increase of electrical consumption and carbon emissions that occurs from

running an air conditioner in the car or fan in the house nonstop.

However, in spite of the efforts of many non-profit organizations to refurbish the urban

canopy, the maintenance of these trees and their growth to maturity are not guaranteed. Firstly,

City Plants’ partnership with the city doesn’t carry a record of the trees planted after two years,

therefore many of these efforts are wasted as a result of the following programs. Los Angeles

launched its billion dollar program, Safe Sidewalks LA, in December of 2016, focusing on

sidewalk repair in order to “improve accessibility,” after a previous lawsuit and an incident

where the city paid $3 million to a woman who gained a head injury from a faulty sidewalk.

After this program was implemented, Los Angeles uprooted many of its mature trees in favor of

sidewalk repair. In addition, Los Angeles’ issue of mcmansionization where smaller residences

are demolished in favor of more modern family residences, continues to uproot mature trees and

reduce the urban canopy further, therefore increasing the effects of the urban heat island.

Furthermore, in 2018, the Los Angeles City Council passed a levy system in order to allow

“developers, businesses, and homeowners” the ability to pay a fine in order to uproot a tree for

urban development rather than plant the required 2 trees in exchange for the removal of one tree

(LA Times). This incentive only harms residents further to the susceptible consequences of the

urban heat island effect. Later on, despite a tree ordinance being passed in order to protect only

four species of trees: Oak Trees, Southern California Black Walnut, Western Sycamore, and
California Bay - city attorney Mike Feuer fails to properly prosecute urban developers and home

owners who’ve demolished protected trees. Therefore, despite the many efforts of non-profit

organizations, the negligence of the city and it’s obvious lack of acknowledgement to the

benefits trees provide, establishes the need for tighter enforcement.

Trees ultimately provide a number of benefits to the city, but it’s benefits manifest after a

period of time because of the time it takes for a tree to mature - if most even reach the stage of

maturity to begin with. In addition to the urban tree canopy, solutions like cool pavements are

available. Dark colored pavement in locations of urban areas, especially on streets that lack the

shade of trees, are found to absorb 80-95% of sunlight according to the heat island. Furthermore,

the EPA states that these urban materials may

reach up to 120°-150°F. As a result, dark

pavements may raise local temperatures

further and even contribute to the

Figure 6: The following thermal infrared picture
consequences of urban runoff. Thus, cool depicts the lighter colored pavement below to be
cooler in temperature than the dark pavement
pavements, or lighter colored solar reflective above.

pavements, may mitigate the urban heat island effect by reflecting solar radiation. Therefore, not

only is driver visibility improved as headlights are better reflected, but the cooling of pavements

continues to cool down outside temperatures and therefore cut energy costs for buildings using

air conditioning (heat island).

However, despite this alternative solution, a single cookie-cutter fits all approach does

not exist. The urban tree canopy initiative is a wonderful approach for the prospective future, but

it fails to currently help disadvantaged communities as these trees are not yet mature and cannot
provide all of its benefits immediately. Moreover, cooling pavements continue to not do much

for disadvantaged communities because they still suffer from lack of green spaces.

As of last year, Senator Edward J. Markey introduced the bill, Preventing HEAT Illness

and Deaths Act of 2020. This bill creates a new committee, the National Integrated Heat Health

Information System Interagency Committee, to focus on the growing heat consequences that

plagues many urban areas. After studying heat consequences, the committee will fund grants for

projects in order to mitigate heat. Therefore, grants for projects like the urban tree canopy,

cooling roofs and pavements, and the establishment of cooling centers will all be allocated to the

appropriate communities that need them, thus closing the gap of heat disparity and lessening the

chances of eco-apartheid. In this manner, the appropriate approaches for certain communities

within Los Angeles may be attended to appropriately, enabling the urban heat island effect’s

consequences to be dealt with in the present time through cooling centers and cooling pavements

as well as for the prospective future through the urban canopy. In this manner, the bill may

implement a federal-wide approach and work closely on the state and local level via various

agencies like the Department of Health and Human Services and the Environmental Protection

Agency to ensure the proper projects are conducted or maintained.

This solution is by no means perfect as the bill was disposed of due to the new 2021

congressional session. In addition, the federal grants for each project may not exceed $2,500,000,

but by introducing this bill for the Senate again, this possible legislation may ensure the

measures of heat prevention in the present and future, securing a greener future for metropolitan

cities.
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