The Bronx, a symbol of inequality in the face of the heat wave

“We live in a concrete jungle”laments Reinaldo Morales, a retired soldier who has gone in search of fresh air to a senior center in the Bronx, the poorest district of NY who suffers fully from the heat and is a reflection of the environmental inequalities recognized by the city.

The 68-year-old man faces the heat wave with “worry” because the energy expenditure for cooling“even if it’s just a room,” is “extremely expensive”.

“It’s good that there is a cooling centre like this. But the idea that we can’t even cool our house is outrageous,” he says.

With temperatures between 30 and 35 degrees Celsius this week, New York was relatively spared from the extreme heat wave that has hit the United States and sent temperatures soaring to 48 degrees Celsius in Las Vegas.

However, one image caught the eye: On Monday, the drawbridge linking the Harlem neighborhood in Manhattan with the Bronx remained stuck in the same position for several hours because the steel had expanded due to the heat.

In the Bronx, which suffers from a combination of poverty, health and air pollution problems, some areas are even more affected by the heat island effects of large cities, due to a lack of trees and dense construction.

“In this district we don’t have many trees or much shade, so the temperature rises a lot, especially when the sun is at its zenith,” says Sandra Arroyo, manager of the Casa Boricua senior center.

“We are suffocating”

Among the buildings in this predominantly Hispanic and African-American neighborhood, the few trees are not enough to protect from the humid heat, which is difficult to bear for Juan Lorenzo, a 72-year-old Dominican.. “You walk around the block and it’s stifling,” says.

“You feel very tired,” adds Stephanie Rodriguez, a 21-year-old cashier, sitting on a bench in the shade in front of her 2-year-old son, who is playing in the water in the only large park in the entire South Bronx, a neighborhood undergoing economic revitalization.

In her three-bedroom apartment, where eight people live, everyone gathers in the only room that has air conditioning, she says.

“We need more green spaces,” Arif Ullah, director of the community association South Bronx Unite, tirelessly pleads.

Just a stone’s throw from their offices, the riverbank facing Harlem is occupied by waste treatment centres, a power station and warehouses, including that of the food delivery company Fresh Direct, which the association had fought against because it was accused of encouraging the circulation of polluting trucks.

At the far end, a small children’s playground is tucked away, in full sunlight, beneath a series of elevated access roads to the motorway.

For Arif Ullah, this situation is not inevitable, but “the legacy of discriminatory and racist public policies that turn a community like this into an urban heat island and produce more health problems.”

The South Bronx neighborhoods of Hunts Point and Mott Haven have rates of emergency room visits for respiratory problems attributable to pollution that are far higher than the city average, according to a lengthy report by New York City in April, the first to examine the issue of “environmental justice.”

New York City estimates that about 350 people die each year from heat stress or health problems aggravated by high temperatures, a mortality rate that affects African Americans twice as much as whites.

One of the aggravating factors, according to the city council, is the lack of access to air conditioning in homes, which affects the Bronx more than other neighborhoods.

In the United States, extreme and dangerous heat waves in large cities have increased as a result of climate change, and the phenomenon is only set to get worse, according to scientists.