Good morning, Inequality Insights readers. I’m Wendy Fry.
California’s inland regions are experiencing dangerous heat waves, exacerbated by rapid population growth. As more people move away from the expensive coastal areas to more affordable inland communities, these regions are seeing significant demographic changes and spiking electricity bills. CalMatters reporters Alejandra Reyes-Velarde and Arfa Momin covered how this shift is putting additional strain on infrastructure and resources, making it harder to cope with the increasing temperatures. “The combination of a growing population and rising extreme heat will put more people at risk of illnesses and pose a challenge for unprepared local officials,” they wrote.
Reyes-Velarde and Momin identified the California communities most at risk — defined as the top 1% of the state’s more than 8,000 census tracts that have grown by more than 500 people in recent years and are expected to experience the most escalating heat under climate change projections. Here they are: Lancaster and Palmdale in Los Angeles County; Apple Valley, Victorville and Hesperia in San Bernardino County; Lake Elsinore and Murrieta in Riverside County; and the Central Valley cities of Visalia, Fresno, Clovis and Tulare.
The population growth is driven by the high cost of living in coastal cities, pushing residents to seek more affordable housing options inland, but their summer electric bills can soar to $500 a month or more. The combination of climate change and urbanization is leading to even higher temperatures, which pose serious health risks, especially for vulnerable populations such as the elderly and low-income families. In California, extreme heat contributed to more than 5,000 hospitalizations and almost 10,600 emergency department visits over the past decade and the health effects “fall disproportionately on already overburdened” such as Black people, Latinos and Native Americans, according to a recent state report. Many inland communities lack adequate cooling centers, green spaces, and other resources to help residents cope with high temperatures.
Visalia resident Maribel Jimenez, 33, takes her 2-year-old son to an indoor playground to beat the heat. She can’t imagine letting her son play outdoors under the scorching sun, but she worries he’s not getting the playtime he should be getting. “It’s definitely gotten much hotter,” she said. “You can’t even have your kids outside. We want to take him out to the playground but it’s too hot. By the time it cools down in the evening, it’s his bedtime.”
DON’T MISS
Poverty score. California beats out every other state when it comes to poverty, CalMatters’ Dan Walters writes. The portion of Californians who fall under the federal supplemental poverty measure, which takes into account the cost of living, was 15.4% between 2021 and 2023, the highest in the nation. Nearly a third of Californians are in serious economic distress, particularly Black and brown Californians with children.
Border pollution. State Sen. Steve Padilla, a Democrat from San Diego, says petty politics got in the way of proposed legislation he says would have protected the Tijuana River National Estuarine Research Reserve. His Senate Bill 1208, which would have prohibited a regional water board from issuing a waste discharge permit for a new landfill within the reserve, was held in the Assembly and not called for a full vote late last month. “At the very last minute, the residents of South Bay and the border communities got dumped on yet again,” he said. But he did get a win for the Tijuana River area this session with his bill requesting the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to investigate potential health impacts attributed to pollution in the river.
Women’s well-being. Explore the California Budget & Policy Center’s new interactive California Women’s Well-Being Index that shows how women are doing throughout the state. The county-level data consists of 30 indicators grouped into five categories: Health, Personal Safety, Employment and Earnings, Economic Security, and Political Empowerment. It shows Trinity, Humbolt and Imperial counties have the highest percentages of women living in poverty, for example.
Santa Clara reparations. The County of Santa Clara is considering creating a reparations advisory board. The Santa Clara County Human Rights Commission was slated to vote last night on whether or not to establish the reparations board, which will focus on the African American community in and around San Jose, according to the nonprofit African American Community Service Agency. Other cities like Los Angeles and San Francisco have appointed committees to investigate how their own policies have created anti-Black systems and how to repair those harms.
Unpaid and unaware. A new study in San Diego reveals that wage theft is widespread but underreported, with many workers fearing retaliation or lacking information on how to file claims. The research, done by San Diego State University Center for Community Research and Engagement and the Center for Policy Initiatives, surveyed more than 900 workers. Their report highlights that low-wage workers, particularly in industries like hospitality and construction, are most affected by wage theft, losing significant income.
Latino GDP. Latinos helped prop up the U.S. economy during the most challenging days of the COVID-19 pandemic and then spearheaded the nation’s economic recovery, according to the latest U.S. Latino GDP report, created by researchers from UCLA and California Lutheran University. Gross domestic product measures the value of goods and services produced in a certain country or by a certain group. During the COVID-19 pandemic, between 2019 and 2022, the U.S. Latino GDP grew faster than the GDP of any of the world’s top 10 economies, including China and India.
Tenant Association. The LA Public Press is releasing an investigative serialized podcast about how tenants at Hillside Villa, in L.A.’s Chinatown, came together to fight huge rent increases. Residents, many of them working-class immigrants, call the lead organizers of their tenant’s association “the señoras” because they’re elderly Latina women who have been friends for decades. Reporter Phoenix Tso tells the tale of how – against all odds – “the señoras” and their neighbors kept their homes and became a political force to be reckoned with in Los Angeles. The podcast is out next week.
Thanks for following our work on the California Divide team. While you’re here, please tell us what kinds of stories you’d love to read. Email us at inequalityinsights@calmatters.org.
Thanks for reading,
Wendy and the California Divide Team