This seemingly easy development became very complicated. She ended up working with an architect to erect shade sails at the transit island. There have been efforts to add more shade, especially around bus shelters, but it’s been difficult, says Bloch, “because shade is a tripwire.” In the instance of the Glassell Park Transit Island, a concerned neighborhood resident wanted to put up a simple bus shelter over a space where she saw people congregating. When LA was settled by the Spanish, the city’s design was governed by a rule called the Law of the Indies, which meant the city’s layout roughly conformed to a 45-degree angle, ensuring sunlight in the winter and shade in the summer. If you look at photos of LA from 150 years ago, it’s mostly grasslands. There are relatively few tall buildings and they’re spaced far apart from one another or located in certain height districts-Downtown LA being one of them, leaving other parts of LA without the shade that tall buildings provide.

“Sunlight and open space is a part of the culture, but it becomes a problem for people who can’t escape it,” says Bloch. Los Angeles is also notoriously anti-density. From outer space, it’s clear that LA has a big tree disparity, with many green neighborhoods, and many completely exposed to the sun. The biggest might be the city’s lack of consistent tree canopy. There are lots of factors working against shade coverage in Los Angeles. People become dizzy, disoriented, confused, lethargic, and dehydrated - and for the elderly or people with health issues, that can tip into more dangerous territory, like heart attacks or organ failure. Without shade, the chance of mortality, illness, and heatstroke can go way up. And in dry, arid environments like LA, shade is perhaps the most important factor influencing human comfort, “even more than our temperature, more than humidity, more than wind speed,” says Bloch. Los Angeles, like most cities around the world, is heating up. Shade can literally be a matter of life and death. Heat Architecture Street Los Angeles Pueblo “I noticed people waiting behind the people waiting behind telephone poles because there’s only that small sliver of shade,” says Bloch.

He was surprised to find people awkwardly huddled behind telephone poles to get relief from the glaring sunlight. And while lots of people move to LA for the sun and the hot temperatures, Bloch noticed a real dark side to this idyllic weather: in many neighborhoods of the city, there’s almost no shade. Journalist Sam Bloch used to live in Los Angeles.

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