HEAT INEQUALITY IN PHOENIX

by Riley Zook

Apart from its unbearable heat and hostile summers, Phoenix, Arizona is perhaps best known for its tremendous continual growth and sprawling real estate development. In fact, the invention of air-conditioning not only transformed a lightly populated, barely habitable town into a center of transportation, industry, and suburban opportunity, it also set in motion Phoenix’s explosive development patterns. On the one hand, the warm climate, migration of Mexican workers, and availability of cheap land attracted flocks of companies and factories. On the other hand, a cheaper path to homeownership and a middle-class lifestyle attracted a wave of families and developers. As technological advances effectively eliminated the hostility of the Phoenix heat for those with means, those without, predominantly non-white, were left to endure brutal conditions. In fact, this same heat that once prevented Phoenix’s development has only intensified through its over-development. As residential development sprawled further from the city center, so did capital, leaving behind a hazardous, disinvested city center. This unequal development has established a dual experience of Phoenix, delineated by the experience of heat, often referred to as “Sunbelt Apartheid”. An examination of the heat island created by Phoenix’s overdevelopment reveals the ways in which infrastructure aids in the segregation of the city, constructing and maintaining racialized difference. 

Phoenix has been spatially organized by metrics of race and class since its inception. Policy decisions, unequal investment, and zoning practices have enabled great social, economic, and environmental disparities. By the end of the 19th century, Arizona’s non-white population increased significantly; the end of the Mexican-American War brought an influx of Mexican migrants, many of whom were marginalized, excluded from aspects of city life, and relegated to outdoor labor. During this time, Phoenix became residentially segregated as white resistance kept the rising Mexican population within the unregulated areas of the city. 

above: Demographic maps of Phoenix’s Hispanic and Latino populations. The red outline marks the city of Phoenix, the yellow outline marks 85007, and the light blue marks Central City South. This map also illustrates the distribution of airports, as well as reference locations including the Rio Salado Landfill and the Mary McLeod Bethur School.  

Through the 1920-40s, these same unregulated areas saw the development of a railway and a factory corridor, infamous processes which reinforced the barrier between Phoenix’s white and non-white populations. City planners even prohibited industrial zoning in the white parts of the city; thus, the remaining area, which would become South Phoenix, faced rampant industrialization into the 20th century, a product of the war and massive population growth. In this way, the industrial zoning of South Phoenix was codified, essentially sealing the fates of its primarily low-income, Mexican population. As hostile infrastructures like landfills and industrial plants encroached upon these communities, the land was labeled as and effectively became hazardous. Planning decisions that accommodated the commute of white workers into Phoenix’s downtown meant the addition of major freeways, the I-17, and the I-10. The introduction of the I-17 and I-10 displaced countless minority communities and further contained those remaining within an industrial bubble. In the same manner, the expansion of Sky Harbor airport in the 1970-80s removed entire neighborhoods and forced those remaining to live beneath a flight path. 

These hostile infrastructures, which enabled Phoenix’s development and endless growth, have transformed South Phoenix into a heat island, especially within Central City South. These infrastructures introduced massive amounts of asphalt and concrete with roads, buildings, and parking lots, removing existing vegetation and amplifying Phoenix’s already unbearable heat. The surface and waste heat from South Phoenix’s concentration of freeways, airports, and industrial sites reinforce a heat bubble that surrounds Central City South. Although these hazardous sites serve the entire city, the spaces they occupy and the communities forced to live amongst them become undesirable. In this way, environmental degradation and social stigmatization fed into each other, establishing a perceived metonymy between the contaminated, hazardous area and the community living there. This metonymy has facilitated disinvestment from and maintained the conditions of Central City South. City zoning decisions have not only made it hotter and more toxic to live in this neighborhood but have also made it harder for its residents to gain socioeconomic mobility; thus, Phoenix’s concentrated industrial zonation has weaponized Phoenix’s heat against Central City South and its primarily non-white residents.

above: Zoning map of Phoenix, including annotations of Encanto, 85007, and Central City South.

Despite the consequences that these policies bore on Phoenix’s Hispanic and Latino populations, the city has always been staunchly pro-growth. Land-based growth coalitions comprise Phoenix’s entire power structure; in this way, city leadership has historically pushed to intensify land use to maximize profitability. Furthermore, Phoenix’s growth has been shaped by capitalist accumulation strategies that disproportionately favored the white middle class. As it became a hub of residential development, resources were continually funneled to the wealthier, whiter North Phoenix, reinforcing their more comfortable way of life with trees, green space, cleaner air, and social infrastructures.

above: Satellite imagery of North Phoenix (left) as compared to South Phoenix (right).

above: a map of Phoenix’s environmental health index with annotations of 85007 and Central City South.

The inequality of heat between South Phoenix and the remainder of the city is far from an invisible force. A comparison between Encanto and Central City South, both within Phoenix’s 85007, underscores how race and class often dictate one’s proximity to hazardous sites. Indeed, the northern neighborhood of Encanto is wealthier, whiter, and much less industrial. While its Environmental Health Index is just as poor as Central City South’s, it is nearly 10 degrees cooler on average. Moreover, while Encanto’s rate of heat-related illnesses has been steadily decreasing, Central City South’s is record-breaking; this difference highlights the dangerous connections between race, class, and heat vulnerability within Phoenix. 

Above is satellite imagery of Encanto.                     Above is satellite imagery of Central City South.

The visual contrast between these neighborhoods is perhaps the best evidence of their inequality. In just a 20-minute drive from Encanto to Central City South, tree-lined streets, parks, and beautiful houses melt away into the endless pavement of treeless streets, parking lots, and weathered buildings. These comparisons make the differences in their vulnerability to Phoenix’s heat obvious. As temperatures more frequently rise above 100 degrees, this vulnerability is increasingly existential: for residents who cannot afford the rising cost of air-conditioning, the summer months are deadly. During these months the absence of trees, much less any green infrastructure is especially felt. 

above: Map of heat-related illnesses in Phoenix. Within 85007 lies the darkest bubble, signifying an HRI of 52%. For reference, a much lighter bubble, like the one nearest to the Biltmore Golf Course, signifies an HRI of 27.9%.

As local community-based organizations have pushed to reduce the heat vulnerability of South Phoenix, they have sought seemingly feasible solutions like massive tree-planting campaigns. Recent research shows that trees provide some of the most effective heat mitigation; additionally, trees provide the further benefits of cleansing the air, reducing the city’s carbon footprint, and increasing property values. In response, the city has pledged tree equity by 2030, establishing minimum canopy coverages. The primary component of this plan is a program that plants trees in low-income communities. While this marks a notable step forward on the part of city leadership, the program is far from flawless. Although the city will come into these communities to plant trees, it will not go so far as to help maintain them. Instead, the maintenance of these trees is left to the individual; because this maintenance is expensive for the many low-income renters in these communities, it has been minimally effective in heat mitigation.

The legacy of industrial zoning is inescapable; once industrial and commercial activity occurs in a place, the consequences are permanent, embedded in the memories of both the environment and the city. The designation of an area as hazardous essentially entails the sacrifice of that area and the people who live there. The distribution of land uses is far from equal: zoning and infrastructural organization disproportionately burden poorer and more minority populations, subjecting an already vulnerable population to constant environmental hostility. Infrastructure is one of the many ways in which urban space is racialized, maintaining physical and socioeconomic barriers between white and non-white populations. As the growing climate crisis exacerbates underlying environmental inequalities, like Phoenix’s unequal heat, it also reveals the true extent of the city’s violence against communities of color. 

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