Key Points
As much of America baked in heat waves this week, the relatively poor New York borough of the Bronx suffered disproportionately.US..
The Bronx endures problems with poverty, health care and air pollution, and some of its neighborhoods suffer more than others in the heat because of a lack of trees to cool things off..
Many residents of the Bronx are low-earning Latinos or African Americans, who say the heat-absorbing buildings that line street after street make life and even breathing difficult in the scorching, muggy New York summer..
Ullah said racist urban policies have allowed communities like the South Bronx to become urban heat islands that lead to health problems. . "And really, it's a matter of life or death," he said..
. Neighborhoods like Hunts Point and Mott Haven in the south of the Bronx have above-average rates of emergency room visits for respiratory problems attributable to pollution, according to a report issued in April by the New York city government, its first to address the issue of what is known as environmental justice..
