The Effectiveness of Cooling Shelters During an Extreme Heat Event. By: Anushka Kargathara & Bailey Wong
Celebrating the graduates in my 2023 Senior Projects class at Cal Poly Pomona Department of Urban & Regional Planning 🎉 Today we big up this team:
The Effectiveness of Cooling Shelters During an Extreme Heat Event (Winner of the First Place Award 🥇 for Senior Project Poster!)
By: Anushka Kargathara & Bailey Wong
Abstract: Extreme heat is one of the growing causes of mortality in the nation with temperatures surpassing 120˚F. Extreme heat (temperatures above 90 degrees Fahrenheit and 32 degrees Celsius) links an inequitable distribution of heat resources. During hot summer months, specifically June through August, heat negatively affects lower-income and communities of color and causes fatigue, dehydration, and respiratory illnesses due to environmental changes in air quality.
This research aims to analyze how heat impacts vulnerable populations in San Bernardino County, California, that do not have access to proper cooling methods, and what methods, if any, they use to keep cool. Knowledge of cooling shelters was tested through voluntary survey participation at San Bernardino County shopping malls to help local city governments broaden cooling shelter resources and gauge residential knowledge about their existence. Data collected showed an urgent need for improvement in the accessibility and promotion of local resources and equitable distribution focusing on lower-income communities.
Currently, resources are not readily available to residents and need to be accessible in both English and Spanish to ensure health communication equity to all population groups in San Bernardino County. Creating heat intensity awareness to prepare cities and planners to dispense correct and adequate resources is recommended to promote social cohesion and resident well-being during bouts of extreme heat.
Research team presenting at the 2023 Cal Poly Pomona Urban & Regional Planning Senior Projects Day. Photo: Jonathan Pacheco Bell
My last day at the South Bay Cities Council of Governments is August 31st. I’ll miss working with this team of passionate, tenacious change agents.
This has been a space to hone my Advocacy Planning practice. I led state funded housing acceleration projects under REAP 1.0, secured grants for housing implementation under REAP 2.0, and built the COG’s regional planner program to support local planning departments. Most importantly though, I applied Embedded Planning methods to strengthen subregional community partnerships.
A highlight of my work was uplifting the need for backyard housing — an intentional effort after doing housing enforcement for over a decade.
Last year, I reached out on Instagram asking if anyone had an Accessory Dwelling Unit we could visit for a story on our ADU Acceleration REAP 1.0 project. Mr. Francisco Aquino Rios responded. He allowed us to spotlight his family’s newly built two-story ADU in South Central LA. The lived experience of the Aquino Rios Family informed our decision to make this the cover story. Thank you!
I appreciate the opportunity to grow with a strong team at the COG. They inspire me.
Florence-Firestone monument sign on Florence Avenue. Photo by Jonathan Pacheco Bell
I’m excited to work with Cal Poly Pomona students in Professor Shannon Heffernan’s course URP 4040: Placemaking: Theories, Methods, and Practices. For the Fall 2023 semester, the course will be studying the community of Florence-Firestone in South Central LA (sometimes called “Florence-Graham” using the federal Census designation). The course “client” and contact is the Florence-Firestone Community Organization (501c3), where I proudly serve as Vice President. Florence-Firestone is where I created Embedded Planning praxis as a street-level LA county planner.
Local news coverage of Florence-Firestone lamentably focuses on social ills. The community endures challenges and struggle — as many others do — but there is more to it than clickbait headlines. Our decades-long community-driven work proves it. Florence-Firestone is a vibrant and historic community. CPP students will see it this semester.
Below is a variety of key sources on Florence-Firestone. I’m proud to have worked on most of these projects. These help reframe the narrative about our community. They tell a fuller story of partnerships, solidarity, and hope.
Note: This is a living document for URP 4040. I’ll update it as needed throughout the semester. The revision history is at the bottom of this page.
Florence-Firestone Community Organization and SELA Collaborative interview, including Embedded Planning origins in Florence-Firestone (starts at 5:25 min mark):
How a Tire Shop in South L.A. Became a Community Hub for Locals:
This webpage was originally published on August 25, 2023.
Revised to add Pat Brown Institute article on September 30, 2023.
My upcoming first semester MURP course at Cal Poly Pomona College of Environmental Design 📍
URP 5120: Planning Ideas and Action, aka Planning Theories and Practices
Course Description: There are competing views about what planning is and what processes planners should use to carry out their work, including arguments for technocratic, communicative, advocacy, and radical approaches. These views stem from differing understandings in philosophy, political economy, and justice. The course asks you to learn about and critically evaluate alternative planning approaches in the context of planning practice. You will be challenged to explore how to put complex ideas into action as part of planning #praxis – putting theories into practice to better the world. By the end of the course, you should be able to recommend planning processes that are appropriate to a given planning problem. You should also be able to articulate the relationship of your recommendations to your own values and those of the profession. Fundamentally, the course is about how to plan. We emphasize processes by which planners can add reason and judgment to planning “messes,” recognizing the rarity of well-defined, purely technical problems.
In support of Vision Zero, join us for a community bike ride in Florence-Firestone this Sunday, August 6th from 10a-1p. No registration required! Just come thru 🚲
📍 Florence-Firestone Community Organization in partnership with Estolano Advisors, BikeLA, Los Angeles County Department of Public Health, & California Office of Traffic Safety
@c1typlann3r.blog 
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