Queens Residents Suffer Most Heat Exposure, Least Park Access: Data

QUEENS – When it comes to extreme heat and park access, several Queens neighborhoods are among the worst ranked across the city.

Residents in the south and southeastern stretch of Queens are the most exposed to excessive temperatures, according to Spatial Equity NYC, an online tool released Tuesday from Transportation Alternatives.

“Spatial inequity results in worse health outcomes, longer commutes, and higher rates of traffic violence — and the harm disproportionately impacts low-income communities and communities of color,” said Executive Director Danny Harris.

"Our public spaces should improve our lives, not harm them, and this new tool equips our elected leaders to finally do something about it.”

The new data show that residents in the neighborhoods encompassing Community boards 12 and 9 — which cover the area around Woodhaven, Jamaica and Hollis — are more prone to endure environmental conditions that lead to heatstrokes, asthma attacks, and cardiovascular collapses.

Green spaces help reduce these temperature conditions, but neighborhoods in Queens were also ranked among the places with the least park access in the city, according to the study.

Specifically, neighborhoods that make up Queens Community Board 13 (which represents Queens Village) and 1 (Astoria and Long Island City) have the least amount of residents living within walking distance of a park.

The study also found that Queens Community Board 10, located in Southwest Queens, is the area with the second most traffic fatalities in the city. The board encompassing LaGuardia Airport and Jackson Heights was ranked among the places with the most frequent noise pollution from traffic.

"The quality of our public spaces — their size and proximity to people, the amount of tree cover — have a direct effect on our health and wellbeing," said Jackson Heights City Council Member Shekar Krishnan.

"The work of creating clean, green, open spaces for all is more urgent than ever.”

The analysis — the result of Transportation Alternative's partnership with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, or MIT — was released Tuesday with a renewed call to support the transit group's infrastructure plan, NYC 25x25.

The plan — endorsed in 2021 by then-Mayor-elect Eric Adams — calls on the city to move away from car-focused designs of New York streets.

Several Queens officials joined Transportation Alternatives in calling for immediate action on spacial inequity, among them Astoria City Council Member Tiffany Cabán.

"We know that with streets that are safer for pedestrians and cyclists, more reliable and comprehensive mass transit coverage, and abundant clean air to breathe, we will achieve public safety and public health outcomes that are impossible under such dramatic spatial inequity," said Cabán.

"Spatial equity is one of our most vital objectives toward making this city as safe and healthy as it can be."