A Plan to Cool Off the Hottest Neighborhoods
As the climate changes, hyperlocal projects are helping keep disadvantaged areas livable.
“Grandma, is the air on?” Kisha Skipper was worried. She’s the vice president of the Yonkers NAACP and a member of the Climate Safe Yonkers Task Force, a group that’s planning projects to make the city safer in a hotter world. And she could see her 95-year-old grandmother sweating on the video call.
Skipper’s grandmother is reluctant to turn on her air-conditioning even on the hottest days, because running the unit costs money and she’s on a fixed income. Every dollar is already spoken for. “I am going to turn it on right now,” she tells Skipper whenever she asks. But Skipper fears that her grandma’s frugality will kill her. “The same way they
