Democratic mayoral front-runner Eric Adams blasted New York Metropolis officers for opening fewer cooling facilities in Queens in the course of the latest warmth wave — significantly within the borough’s southern neighborhoods largely populated by black residents.
“Queens neighborhoods which might be house to a disproportionate variety of high-risk NYCers have few cooling facilities — in a warmth wave,” Adams, the Brooklyn borough president, stated in a tweet Tuesday whereas linking to a Patch.com story.
“That’s fully unacceptable. We have to open extra cooling facilities in communities with weak populations, instantly.”
The southeastern Queens neighborhoods of Hollis, St. Albans, Springfield Gardens, Laurelton, Cambria Heights, or Queens Village all lacked cooling facilities, Patch.com reported. These communities among the many areas the place residents have the very best or second-highest danger of warmth damage or dying.
Adams held a lead Tuesday in the course of the preliminary vote within the Democratic major for mayor — largely attributable to his robust exhibiting in Queens, the place he ran up the rating within the borough’s southern communities that lacked the cooling facilities.
However the unofficial lead shrunk to 2 factors over Kathryn Garcia on Tuesday, in keeping with the preliminary unofficial tally beneath ranked alternative voting. About 125,000 absentee ballots nonetheless wanted to be counted to find out a winner.
An OEM spokesperson didn’t dispute the scarcity in Queens however blamed it on COVID-19 points.
“Whereas we proceed to deliver extra conventional cooling facilities again on-line after many have been closed as a result of COVID-19 pandemic, the Metropolis has expanded cooling choices like spray showers and consuming fountains throughout all neighborhoods to assist everybody beat the warmth,” the spokesperson stated, who added that folks searching for cooling facilities can name 311..
Many Queens libraries have been used as a cooling facilities pre-pademic.
Queens is the second-most populated borough, however has the second second-fewest variety of cooling facilities among the many 5 boroughs.
Town opened 35 cooling websites to serve Queens’ 2.2 million residents. However, Manhattan, house to roughly 600,000 fewer individuals, has 16 extra cooling websites, Patch.com identified.
Twice as many black New Yorkers die of heat-related sicknesses in comparison with the town’s white residents, in keeping with the newest Well being Division information.
