‘You Just Sweat’: NYC Cops, Delivery Workers Take the Heat Wave in Stride

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(Bloomberg) — A sweltering week in New York City is taking a toll on residents young and old while also raising concerns over the bills they’ll have to inevitably pay.

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From doormen to delivery workers to cops, New Yorkers are lamenting that the heat that’s ripped through large swaths of Europe and and the US South and Midwest is finally catching up to them. Temperatures could hit 99 degrees Fahrenheit (37 degrees Celsius) in Central Park on Sunday, a record high for the date.

Even kids aren’t immune to the heat wave. One preschool gave kids bags of ice to play with.

Two police officers, Shaq Richardson and John Lovett, who were chatting with a doorman at Trump Tower, said their air-conditioned patrol car offered partial relief from the heat during their 10-hour shifts. But not enough.

“You just sweat,” said Lovett.

The doorman, who gave only his first name, David, said he dreamed of being on the beach. He quipped that the officers might think twice about running their air conditioners at home all day when they see their electric bills at the end of the summer. 

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Con Edison, which provides energy for roughly 10 million people living in New York City and Westchester County, has estimated that power bills this summer will be a whopping 11-12% higher than in 2021. In Westchester, summer bills for residential customers are projected to be about 15% higher.  

New Yorkers, of course, aren’t alone in dealing with soaring temperatures exacerbated by a warming planet. The long-lasting heat wave across the Great Plains and South is testing the Texas power grid, and a spate of fires in California has destroyed homes. England saw its hottest temperature ever, and France and Spain are battling deadly wildfires.

Gustavo Ajche, a Grubhub delivery worker who was on duty during the lunch peak between 11 a.m. and 3 p.m., the hottest part of the day, said workers need to bring several T-shirts and change clothes often because of how much they sweat. Ajche said he and his colleagues are thankful for the restaurant owners who have offered them free water.

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“Storms and the crazy weather are what make delivery workers so essential for the city,” he said. 

City officials point out that while hot summer days may be fun for some — think playing in sprinklers or eating popsicles for breakfast — they can also be deadly. From 1979 to 2018, 11,000 people in the US died from heat, according to the US Environmental Protection Agency. Between 2010 and 2019, of the 100 or so New Yorkers who died each year in hot homes, more than 80% had no air-conditioning available or running.

New York is offering cooling centers in public libraries, community centers, senior centers and New York City Housing Authority facilities and can be found through a location finder on the city’s website. And at least one city agency — the Sanitation Department — is already looking past summer.