Do you believe New Yorkers have a right to be cool? We do! Extreme heat is the deadliest impact of climate change, and Blacks are twice as likely to die from heat-related illnesses as their white counterparts in New York City.
The weather may have cooled, but our advocacy is starting to heat up. We are urging the New York City Council and Speaker Adrienne Adams to co-sponsor and pass the Right to Cooling Bill Package, which includes:
- Intro 0994/Tenant’s Right to Cooling – Requires landlords to provide and maintain cooling devices to keep homes no hotter than 78°F in the summer;
- Intro 0998/Codify Cooling Centers – Establishes a permanent cooling center program for vulnerable populations; and
- Intro 0928/Cool Pavement Pilot – Launches a pilot project for cool pavement to reduce urban heat.
Collectively, this slate of bills strengthens our City’s defenses against relentless and unprecedented heatwaves. Last year, the City Council passed the Urban Forest Plan (Local Law 148), which seeks to equitably and strategically grow the urban canopy to 30 percent of the City’s land cover while preserving our mature trees and therefore maximizing the cooling benefit of our green spaces. We must continue to build on that momentum by ensuring cooling assets are accessible at home and in public where we cannot expand practical canopy. Let’s not wait until next summer when more lives are put at risk!