Community leaders and city officials gathered Monday on the West Side to launch their campaign to measure heat across the city this summer.
Chicago is the latest city to participate in the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Heat Watch program, which aims to map temperature disparities and raise public awareness.
The campaign’s goal is to recruit about 150 local volunteers to collect temperature and humidity measurements on a designated “campaign day,” to be decided by weather experts this summer.
Pastor Reshorna Fitzpatrick of Stone Temple Baptist Church, where Monday’s news conference took place, said the 1995 heat wave that left an estimated 740 Chicagoans dead often comes to mind. “We can do something about it,” she said.
“We have the technology. We have the people. Now we need the community to rally together and be a part of what we’re doing,” Fitzpatrick said.
Communities like the one that the North Lawndale church serves are often left out of this type of involvement, Fitzpatrick said.
“I want to be front and center of it,” she said. “And I want my community to take advantage of things that will help them live vibrant lives in their communities. So that’s why we’re partnering. I think this is going to have a great, long-lasting effect for generations.”
Windsor Park Lutheran Church is another partner in the Heat Watch campaign. The church’s property team leader, Alvyn Walker, said at the launch that the campaign is about communities working with communities — not outsiders who aren’t familiar with the people.
“We’re trying to provide opportunities for people in the community to establish a means by which they provide solutions to the problems that they’re having,” Walker said.
A new investigation by the Tribune found heat disparities by race, ethnicity and also health insurance coverage. There were more cooling amenities like parks, bus shelters and trees in the areas with more white residents compared with areas with more Latino residents, for example.
“We know that there are historical events and policies that have made these disparities more pronounced,” said Kyra Woods, a city of Chicago policy adviser on environment and climate.
This campaign is the first step of fighting heat vulnerability, one that directly involves the people most affected, she said.
Those who cope with the intense heat every summer are some of the best people to work with for a campaign like this, Woods said.
“In Chicago, sometimes you’re accustomed to it and you don’t realize, ‘Yeah, this is hard.’ You know, you just think it’s what you have to do,” she said.
The campaign website, where volunteers can sign up, also allows residents to suggest hot areas in their neighborhoods to avoid. The submissions will be used to guide the driving routes of volunteers and their temperature sensors on campaign day.
The resulting map and data will be used by the city and other stakeholders to determine what areas need more resources.
“I’m looking forward to the honest conversation about how we can kick it up a notch and how we can really meet the needs of one another,” Woods said.
