Changing the color of L.A. streets and growing out the urban canopy are part of a campaign to fight the heat island in and around Los Angeles.
Los Angeles is undergoing a proactive campaign to fight the effects of a warming planet but trying to mitigate or reverse the effects of its urban heat island. Among the city’s strategies for doing so is the use of white street sealant so that the street will hold less heat. "This is what the city of Los Angeles is calling 'cool pavement'—whitening blocks in each of LA’s 15 council districts to see how changing the color of streets can bring down the overall temperature," Nate Berg reports in Gizmodo.
The city also encourages property owners to plant more trees on their land to create shade, "They hold more than 100 tree adoption events a year, and gave away nearly 18,000 trees in 2016 alone. Though street trees can play a part in cooling the city, Skrzat says there’s much more potential in the front and back yards of L.A.'s low density residential areas," Berg writes. Changing the colors of streets, roofs and maintaining more trees are all part of "Sustainable City pLAn," which includes a goal drop the city's heat differential by 3 degrees.
FULL STORY: The Radical Plan to Cool Down LA as the World Heats Up
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Alabama: Trump Terminates Settlements for Black Communities Harmed By Raw Sewage
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Study: Maui’s Plan to Convert Vacation Rentals to Long-Term Housing Could Cause Nearly $1 Billion Economic Loss
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Planetizen Federal Action Tracker
A weekly monitor of how Trump’s orders and actions are impacting planners and planning in America.
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Parklet Symposium Highlights the Success of Shared Spaces
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Federal Homelessness Agency Places Entire Staff on Leave
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