Street heat (photo: Benjamin Kanter/Mayoral Photo Office)

It's summer in New York City, and the word on the street is heat – literally. Some of the hottest places are the pavement itself,including the city’s 6,300 miles of streets and highways. To more effectively address urban heat islands, New York City would benefit from a cohesive, science-based approach that studies

A heat wave is here (photo: Michael Appleton/Mayor's Office)

Heat kills. It is the deadliest form of weather. And it kills Black and brown people at a higher rate than whites.

This should no longer be news. The COVID-19 pandemic has dramatically exposed the many brutal inequities in our society, which have been overlooked and outright ignored by decision-makers for far too long. In the United States, generations of Black and brown people have had to

Summer heat has arrived (photo: governor's office)

The sudden spread of COVID-19 caught governments around the world off-guard, setting off one of the deadliest public health crises in generations. We are learning many lessons from this pandemic, including the importance of preparing for emergencies early and taking decisive action when they strike, especially in New York State, the epicenter of the crisis, where there are over 380,000 confirmed cases and more than 24,000 deaths.

With summer officially beginning on June 20, another

Ritchie Torres (photo: John McCarten)

City Council Member Ritchie Torres will introduce a bill on Thursday that aims to ensure landlords follow the law and keep the heat on for tenants when it should be.

Torres’ bill, being introduced in partnership with Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams, would require landlords of buildings with more than three units to install tamper-proof heat sensors in the living room of each unit. These “temperature reporting devices” would be monitored by tenants, landlords, and the city’s housing