View of downtown skyline of Los Angeles, with snowy San Gabriel mountains in the distance. Cover of the Urban History Association’s program for their 11th biennial conference in Los Angeles this October 9-12.
Session 80 • Sat. 8:00-9:30 am
Summer in the City: Urban Heat in the Past, Present, and Future
Chair & Commentator:
Mars Plater University of Connecticut
Lawrence Culver Utah State University
Hidden Histories of Heat in LA's Land of Sunshine
Alison Rose Jefferson
Independent Historian and Heritage Conservation Consultant Black California Dreamin': Claiming Space at
America's Leisure Frontier
Elsa Devienne Northumbria University
History Tells Us LA's Beaches are Man-Made.
But How Long until They're Gone Forever?
Kara Schlichting Queens College, CUNY
Rethinking New York City's "Long Hot
Summers"
How can the history of heat inform our understanding of planning, parks, policing, incarceration, inequality, public recreation, and public health in cities?
This panel session considers how city people have survived sweaty summers in the past, and how authorities have reacted to civilians searching for relief from the heat.
Los Angeles-a city born in no small part through promotion of climate for recreation and health-is an apt place to ask these questions about the past while confronting a present and future threatened by climate catastrophe. Angelenos are grappling with devastating fires, sweltering heat, and other consequences of a changing and more chaotic climate.
Our panelists will look at examples from this and other cities to consider how the history of urban heat might inform planning for climate change's impacts.
Alison Rose Jefferson considers how climate and heat played a role in the histories of recreational and resort destinations for African American Southern Californians.
Lawrence Culver examines histories of heat concealed within LA's supposed climate paradise.
Elsa Devienne explores how the beaches of LA-climate refuges on hot days-are threatened by climate change and rising seas.
Across the continent, New York City's history is also shaped by urban heat. Mars Plater demonstrates that late nineteenth century New Yorkers were so eager to beat the heat that steamboat excursionists rioted rather than returning to the sweltering city.
Kara Schlichting illuminates how the urban heat island effect led to conflict, political concern, and police brutality in predominantly Black NYC neighborhoods in the summers of 1967 and 1968.
Together, these panelists and this session will examine heat as a historical issue in cities, and its importance for understanding our urban climatic past and future.
I’m delighted to be on the program for the Urban History Association’s first ever conference in Los Angeles! My panel, “Summer in the City: Urban Heat in the Past, Present, and Future,” will be on Saturday. The program listing and abstract are below.
#UHA #urbanhist #envirohist