60 to 70 percent of residents in those neighborhoods also reside in communities of color or low-income areas, defined by the city as disproportionately impacted “environmental justice” communities.
The 2024 Environmental Justice Report, published by the Mayor’s Office of Climate and Environmental Justice, found that Black New Yorkers are two times more likely to die from heat stress as White New Yorkers, and that Black residents are also less likely to have access to air conditioning, “the most effective way to prevent heat-health impacts.”
Mayor Eric Adams, during the launch of a city-wide “Beat The Heat”campaign last week, cited the report’s finding that heat-related deaths averaged 350 per year from 2011 to 2020, and that from 2017 to 2022, the city averaged 683 emergency room visits by those suffering from heat-related illness.