Phoenix has experienced over 110 triple-digit days this year and Dallas has experienced nearly 50.
“It makes sense that Phoenix would be on the forefront of really trying to deploy these strategies in a city-wide effort,” Dahl said.which outlines eight primary areas where the city can prepare for and address the impacts of climate change. Those include strengthening the city’s transportation infrastructure, enhancing green spaces and making buildings more energy-efficient.
Several times a week, members of Phoenix’s Office of Heat Response take two-hour shifts to hand out water bottles, wet towels and other free cooling supplies to unsheltered folks in the community. “We can’t take our foot off the gas in the explicitly and intentionally heat-focused services,” Hondula said. “But there’s no better way to beat the heat, for somebody who’s living on the streets, than to get off the streets.”
Phoenix has over 50 cooling centers, but since becoming a cooling center is voluntary, the sites aren’t evenly distributed across the city. “Our goal is, realistically, to try to get people into a place where they’re safe,” Alvarez said. “Where they’ve got heat when it’s cool, and cool when it’s hot.”during normal business hours. Dallas’ Office of Emergency Management distributed bulk packs of water bottles to those locations for anyone needing extreme heat relief.
Middel says cities are rife with artificial surfaces like concrete sidewalks and asphalt roads that act as “heat sponges.” The product, called CoolSeal, coats the top of asphalt surfaces. It’s not paint – it’s a safe, non-toxic seal coat. CoolSeal makes asphalt more reflective. That way, it absorbs less direct sunlight during the day, and at night, there’s less solar energy released back into the air to heat up neighborhoods.
Treating pavement with CoolSeal costs about $5 per square yard. That’s slightly more expensive than a traditional seal coat on an asphalt street needing maintenance, which is about $2 to $3 per square yard. Jenny Nicewander, a member of the City of Dallas’ Public Works department, said the department has been meeting with vendors that sell cool pavement treatments, some of whom are responsible for the work in Phoenix and Los Angeles. She said the city is learning more about the treatment and exploring ways to implement it in Dallas.
“[Trees are] very important in a place like Phoenix,” said Martens, “because the heat is so extreme here during the summertime that being in shade and not being in shade is a huge quality of life difference.” Martens said one of the biggest hurdles to urban tree-planting is cities weren’t constructed with trees in mind. Phoenix, she said, is focusing on “low-hanging fruit”: areas where there aren’t major power lines or size constraints limiting where they can plant.
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