This report examines community concerns and challenges related to extreme heat during a typical year and during the COVID-19 pandemic. It considers which policies have helped address these concerns and challenges and identifies potential opportunities to further support community members with the challenge of extreme heat. The report focuses specifically on American Indian and Latino/a community members, given their disproportionate risk of experiencing detrimental impacts of extreme heat and overlapping risk factors for negative outcomes of COVID-19.

This report examines community concerns and challenges related to extreme heat during a typical year and during the COVID-19 pandemic. It considers which policies have helped address these concerns and challenges and identifies potential opportunities to further support community members with the challenge of extreme heat. The report focuses specifically on American Indian and Latino/a community members, given their disproportionate risk of experiencing detrimental impacts of extreme heat and overlapping risk factors for negative outcomes of COVID-19.

If Arizona is to prosper into the next century, our focus needs to turn to what is essential for our future: The preservation of our groundwater and our increasingly fragile aquifers. This analysis shows that Arizona continues on a path of unsustainable groundwater use that threatens the health and welfare of our state. It is not too late for a course correction, but that will require that Arizonans face the truth and make bold choices.

The Gateway Health Assessment and Strategy Report is submitted by a multidisciplinary health team, convened by St. Luke's Health Initiatives (SLHI), as part of Reinvent PHX. Funded by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, Reinvent PHX is a partnership between the city of Phoenix, Arizona State University, and SLHI to develop a holistic, long-range sustainability plan for the neighborhoods along the light rail.

The scope of SLHI and the health team's work is to gather information from 'underserved, particularly non-English speaking, residents in each district.' From information gathered from residents, along with other primary and secondary data, the health team produced this health impact assessment of Solano's existing built-environment conditions with a focus on healthy food and recreation access, walking and bicycling safety, and exposure to excessive heat. After assessing the current conditions, the health team recommends the attached intervention strategies focused on improving public health.

The scope of SLHI and the health team's work is to gather information from underserved, particularly non-English speaking, residents in each district. From information gathered from residents, along with other primary and secondary data, the health team produced this health impact assessment of Uptown's existing built-environment conditions with a focus on healthy food and recreation access, walking and bicycling safety, and exposure to excessive heat. After assessing the current conditions, the health team recommends the attached intervention strategies focused on improving public health.

For a century, Arizona has pursued prosperity through outward expansion of its urban areas. In metropolitan Phoenix and elsewhere, “growth” has meant developing raw land with new houses, new shopping centers, and new industrial parks--and the metropolitan “frontier” has moved farther outward from downtown every year. This has not been uniformly true, of course. Some cities--Phoenix, Tempe, and Scottsdale especially--have been grappling with the question of revitalizing older urban neighborhoods for many years. But the “outside game” has been the predominant development pattern in the Valley of Sun for many decades. And the Phoenix region has played this game better than one might think, creating many high-quality master-planned communities, protecting lots of open space, using impact fees to build good infrastructure. In other words, Phoenix has used the “outside game” to create a region so attractive it continues to be one of the fastest-growing metropolises in America. But in order for cities to play a good inside game, Arizona must get serious about urban revitalization. And that will require big changes.