8 August 1 -7, 2024 dallasobserver.com DALLAS OBSERVER Classified | MusiC | dish | Culture | unfair Park | Contents And despite the fact that Texas routinely turns off the lights, any electric bill savings are a moot point. According to data by the National Oce- anic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), Texas also leads the country in the billions of dollars spent on weather and cli- mate disasters. Between the years 2000 and 2023, extreme weather has caused over $370 billion in damage across the state. Hurricanes are by far the most costly weather event Texas faces, with severe storms taking second place. ▼ WEATHER THE BIG HEAT THE HOTTEST DALLAS NEIGHBORHOODS FOR URBAN HEAT ISLAND EFFECT. BY EMMA RUBY I s everyone enjoying the final days of their mid-summer coolish front? Yes? Well, good, so are we. As WFAA Meteorologist Pete Delkus so kindly reminded us, this summer has paled in comparison to last summer’s scorch. We’ve had half as many triple digit tempera- ture days so far this year as we had by this time in 2023, but don’t be fooled. The heat will be back. It always comes back. And not all neighborhoods are created equal when it comes to the hot weather. This was the conclusion of the first half of a study conducted earlier this year by the city of Dallas and the National Oceanic and At- mospheric Administration. In neighbor- hoods where green space is lacking and concrete has been poured with abundance, the temperature can reach up to 10 degrees hotter than what the thermometer says, and what greener, more shaded pockets of the city are feeling. The campaign to track urban heat is- lands in Dallas was held last summer across an oblong swath of the city, from the Love Field area, across most of West Dallas and Downtown, through the northern half of Oak Cliff and into Dallas’ southern sector. On Aug. 10, it’s the rest of the city’s turn. Vol- unteers have around 280 square miles to map, almost twice as much area as what was recorded last summer. Data for the study will be taken by sen- sors attached to volunteers’ cars. The volun- teers will drive along pre-arranged routes in the morning, midday and evening to record how the temperature in their area compares to the rest of Dallas. The city hopes to use the findings of the study to identify hotspots so that cooling solutions can be evaluated. The results of last summer’s survey showed that 10 of the mapped neighbor- hoods experience temperatures up to 10 de- grees higher than what’s on the thermostat on a regular basis. Those neighborhoods are Love Field, the Medical District, Uptown, Oak Lawn, Downtown, Deep Ellum, the De- sign District, West Dallas, Bishop Arts and the Stemmons/Market Center. If that sounds like pretty much every- where, it’s because it is. Climate Central re- searchers recently found that 81% of Dallas residents live in areas at least eight degrees warmer than the temperature recorded at the nearest park. That’s over one million people, making Dallas one of only six cities with that many residents exposed to a heat island. (Of those six cities, three are in Texas.) Dallas’ heat island study will allow the city’s Office of Environmental Quality and Sustainability to look at data that was col- lected on a hyper-local level to help deter- mine things like where to plant more trees, and what neighborhoods’ communities might be at risk of higher levels of heat-re- lated illness. Three of the neighborhoods surveyed last summer — the Medical District, West Dallas and Bishop Arts — were identified as having environmental justice concerns. According to a statement released by Dallas about the sur- vey, historically disadvantaged neighbor- hoods are less likely to have access to ample green space, and Carlos Evans, the city’s Of- fice of Environmental Quality and Sustain- ability director, said health risks from urban heat islands can include respiratory illnesses, heat exhaustion, heat stroke and death. (While we’re talking about efforts to make cooling off more equitable, it’s worth men- tioning that Dallas is currently considering closing nine city-owned pools, thanks to a $38 million budget shortfall. Seven of the nine pools are in “minority districts” south of I-30, the Dallas Morning News reports.) The survey on Aug. 10 will track temper- atures in the southern half of Oak Cliff, Lakewood, Pleasant Grove, Casa View, North Dallas and Far North Dallas. ▼ RELIGION MOSQUE-KINNEY, TX DOZENS OF MCKINNEY RESIDENTS SPEAK AGAINST ‘EYESORE’ MOSQUE MOVING IN NEXT DOOR. BY EMMA RUBY M ore than 60 McKinney residents flooded the chambers of a city Plan- ning and Zoning Commission meet- ing earlier this month, the majority of whom spoke against a proposed mosque that would sit adjacent to their neighborhood. A rezoning application submitted by the McKinney Islamic Association would allow for the construction of a 37,000-square-foot mosque on five acres at the corner of Virginia Parkway and Crutcher Crossing. Residents of the Stone Brook Crossing neighborhood said Crutcher Crossing is one of only two en- trances to their community, and recent devel- opments have already led to an increase in traffic and street congestion. A worship cen- ter would add to that strain, many speakers said while voicing their opposition. The commission recommended that the rezoning request be denied, which would take a City Council supermajority to over- rule. While the mosque’s zoning is supposed to appear on the council’s Aug. 6 agenda, Sa- mad Syed, president of the McKinney Is- lamic Association, is trying to remove the request for the time being. “We were shocked and surprised about the amount of opposition that we saw on that night. We didn’t expect that because a day before we had a Zoom call with the [Stone Brook Crossing] HOA, and there were four or five people who showed up,” Syed told the Observer. ‘A Lot of Misconceptions’ Religious assembly is currently allowed under any McKinney zoning type, but the zoning on the plot of land purchased by the association in November 2022 currently caps buildings at 15,000 square feet. The group could move forward with a plan for three, 15,000-square-foot buildings on the property, but the planned 37,000-square-foot facility would be more cost-effective, Syed said. The single building would also be more visually “cohesive,” said Rick Brown, the ar- chitect for the mosque, during the commis- sion meeting. Multiple residents spoke of their concerns that a large facility would be unappealing to look at and drive down prop- erty values. At least four speakers threat- ened to sell their homes if the mosque is built. “The population of the community … it’s primarily Christian,” one speaker said. “So I think a lot of the community residents would find this, I don’t want to say an eye- sore, but an eyesore.” While most McKinney zoning types do impose height restrictions on buildings, ex- ceptions are built into each for religious uses such as a church steeple or a mosque dome. The association’s planned mosque does have a dome that would be around 45 feet tall, but the sloping ground would help level out the height, Brown said. Many speakers shared concerns about the site not being equipped to handle park- ing demands, resulting in cars overflowing into the narrow streets of the neighborhood. Syed said the group is currently expanding to a new mosque because of a lack of park- ing at their current facility, three miles south of the proposed site. Other neighbors’ wor- ries included the building’s impact on a nearby creek and the privacy of homes that back up to the land. But some comments bordered on blatant islamophobia — such as one resident who worried his children would be indoctri- nated after walking past a mosque — and ig- norance — like the resident who commented that the month of Ramadan would be a “nightmare” because of traffic. Rev. Mally Baum, a senior pastor at Trinity Presbyterian Church in McKinney, urged the chamber to be open-minded about the zoning request. During her time to speak at the meet- ing, she shared that her 100-year-old, military Veteran father “wasn’t so sure about the Mus- lims” before she took him to an Iftar dinner, the evening meal during Ramadan. “He and Abdul, a colonel in the Iraqi army who was forced to flee with his family because of their cooperation with the U.S. during the Iraq war, were fast friends. We’ve spent many Thanksgivings together.” Baum said. “If you are frightened about the unknown or the unfa- miliar, I can promise you that your lives will be enriched by the addition of these gracious and conscientious citizens.” Baum’s church sits less than a half-mile from the site of the proposed mosque, on the main road that runs outside the Stone Brook Crossing neighborhood. The Path Forward After several commis- sioners voiced their concerns for the build- ing’s size, the rezoning application was unanimously denied. While a supermajority vote of the City Council could push the re- quest through, Syed plans to slow things down by pulling the agenda item to make time to finalize a site plan, conclude a traffic study and hold neighborhood meetings. In 2023, traffic counts were completed on Virginia Parkway, so the city should be able to move forward with estimates on the mosque’s impact to traffic. The city’s Assis- tant Director of Engineering Matt Richard- son said McKinney does not currently have much data on the traffic patterns surround- ing mosques, so information from other cit- ies will be considered. Syed is optimistic, even if he was blind- sided at the Planning and Zoning commis- sion meeting. He said the McKinney Islamic Association has organized a team to help educate neighbors on their commu- nity. Other facilities at the mosque, such as a gym, food pantry and personal growth classes, will be open to the public regard- less of religious beliefs. “There’s a lot of misconceptions, misin- formation,” Syed said. “I do feel that most of [the neighbors] are good-hearted people with their concerns, and we respect those and we’ll try to answer those. There’ll al- ways be people who don’t like you, and I don’t think we can do anything about that, but our job is to educate and tell people who we are and try to be good neighbors.” Zainubrazvi / Wikimedia Commons There might be another mosque in North Texas, like this one in Irving, but some residents are fighting against it. Unfair Park from p7
