Heat, homelessness, drugs
America’s fifth biggest city has always been hot, but day and night temperatures have been rising due to global heating and the city’s unchecked development, which has created a sprawling urban heat island that has literally become unliveable for some residents. In the past three years, 911 calls and emergency room visits for heat-related emergencies have skyrocketed and more than a thousand people have died from extreme heat.
I did not know that. You’d think it would prompt a mass exodus.
The city is scattered with cooling centres – air conditioned places where residents can go to cool down – but clearly this isn’t working for many people. I wanted to spend a good chunk of time in Phoenix to better understand why, and also who is most affected by the hotter days and nights.
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It was eerie driving around [last June] as there were so few people outside. In fact, it soon became clear that it was predominantly those with nowhere else to go, the unhoused, who were outside, desperately looking for shade in car parks, shop doorways, bus stops, parks and behind dumpsters. As Phoenix has gotten hotter, the number of unhoused people has also skyrocketed amid an affordable housing crisis and this has been a deadly combination: around a half of the city’s heat deaths are unhoused people. Another big risk factor is drugs. In Phoenix, fentanyl, a downer which can be 50 to 200 times more potent than morphine, and methamphetamine, an upper which increases the risk of heat-related medical complications, are frequently used in combination.
And, I’m guessing, drug addicts aren’t hugely appealing as tenants, so it’s a feedback loop. Seattle has the same issue minus the scorching heat.
I’ve never understood the appeal of Phoenix, but then, I’ve never understood all the people here who cry and pout the moment the temperature gets down in the 70s, wanting summer heat back.
I am planning to move further north when I retire. These days, I’m not sure that will help, but at least it won’t be Arizona hot.
it appealed to me most of the time, but there were times where I found it impossible to be outside during the day. When people asked me why I moved back, I explained that in Minnesota when it’s cold you can layer your clothes In the summer it’s nice. In Phoenix when it approaches 120, there’s only so naked you can get. The zephyrs at night felt wonderful. But that’s just the summer. In the winter, it’s beautiful weather. Most of the time. Those nice days will grow fewer.
As for homelessness, I often gave people cash when I could. Friends would ask why I did, since handing people money was just encouranging laziness. But, I told them that anyone who was out in 110F heat would love to have another way to get money.
If you’re moving north, we’d love to have you in Minnesota, but buy your property soon. This is predicted to be one of the areas that most people will be moving too as the rest of the country either floods, suffers droughts or goes under the ocean.
Mike, Minnesota is one of the states on our list; it is one of the most expensive states on our list, though. I would love to be near the Minneapolis theatre scene, which is dwarfed really only by NYC and Chicago.