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Q&A
Elected officials' offices as cooling centers
1:12:31
ยท
66 sec
The discussion focuses on the use of elected officials' offices as cooling centers and the challenges associated with their availability, especially on weekends. Christina Farrell explains that various types of locations can serve as cooling centers.
- Elected officials' offices, including those of council members, assembly members, and state senators, can serve as cooling centers
- Last year, about seven elected officials' offices were registered as cooling centers
- Other locations such as houses of worship can also be cooling centers
- The main requirements for a cooling center are public accessibility, air conditioning, seating, and water availability
- Council Member Narcisse expresses concern about the limited availability of elected officials' offices as cooling centers on weekends
Mercedes Narcisse
1:12:31
Alright.
1:12:32
For the elected officials, are we talking about New York City Elected Officials or are we talking about across the board that can be a cooling center?
Christina Farrell
1:12:40
Anybody.
1:12:41
We reached out last year to all of the elected offices and so there were four council members, there were also some assembly members and state senators, we talked to the borough presidents.
1:12:53
So know, houses of worship can be a cooling center.
1:12:58
Any again, any space that's available to the public that has access to air conditioning, has some seating and water, those are the bare bones standards of what we need.
Mercedes Narcisse
1:13:09
Okay.
1:13:09
So the listing that we're talking about is including those partners, like the elected officials and all that?
Christina Farrell
1:13:16
The six twenty was all of the partners from last year.
1:13:20
There were about seven elected officials altogether, I think.
Mercedes Narcisse
1:13:22
One of my biggest concern is the fact that elected officials office, most of them are not open on the weekend.
1:13:30
And if they have a heat wave or AQI increase, there is no place for them to go.