Esteemed City Council Members and Senior City Staff,
Thank you for your past leadership and communication during the extreme heat days last month. We would like to ask you to go further by lowering the threshold for cooling centers to 89 degrees and by including a provision for air quality.
Lowering the threshold will better protect the most vulnerable populations during heat advisory days: residents in lower-resourced neighborhoods and elders. Community leaders and members of the San Mateo County's Extreme Heat Task Force have been greatly concerned with the heat threshold for years. We ask that cooling centers throughout Menlo Park be opened once the 89 degree threshold is met in the city. If residents are unable to access cooling centers, we ask that individual air cooling units be provided by the city, distributed through the senior center or another outreach organization.
The Belle Haven neighborhood is especially vulnerable to extreme heat and bad air quality because of older homes and fewer trees. According to the California Healthy Places Index, Menlo Park has between 15-31% tree canopy coverage, however the Belle Haven Neighborhood has a mere 7% coverage. It has been found that the higher the tree canopy coverage the lower likelihood of hospitalization during extreme heat days.
San Mateo County is also especially vulnerable to extreme heat impacts given that much of the existing housing stock is older and has poor insulation, ventilation, and cooling, according to the 2021 Housing and Climate Readiness in San Mateo County Toolkit. From the Office of Sustainability’s Extreme Heat Webinar, we learned that San Mateo County has one of the lowest percentages in the state of California of homes with air conditioning, with fewer than 36% of homes having access.
Older housing is not the only issue. The 2022 Bay Air Center found that Belle Haven’s PM 2.5 levels, particles of dust and pollutants, are on the higher end of the average for San Mateo County. There is no known safe level of exposure to PM 2.5, therefore every microgram of PM affects public health. These levels of pollutants increase during the wildfire season and extreme heat days.
In the meantime, Belle Haven Action has been trying to improve the lives of residents when it comes to environmental health and safety. We have provided seniors with air filtration units and have monitored the recipients, calling them during high heat days. We have delivered at-home Covid test kits and we provide outreach to encourage PCR testing for the community at the local Boys & Girls Club. Although such short-term mitigation is helpful, it is not enough.
We are asking for the city to take longer-term mitigation measures: lower the heat threshold to 89 degrees, include a provision for air quality, and recommend that cooling centers remain open beyond normal business hours in order to serve the needs of the residents.
Sincerely,
Eliza Moreno
M.A. Stanford University
Specialization: Environment, Ecology and Sustainability
on behalf of Belle Haven Action
www.bellehavenaction.org
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Eliza Moreno
Bay Area Climate Justice Fellow
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