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Phoenix Looking To Trees — And Buildings — For More Shade To Cool The City

Climate has always been one of Arizona’s selling points, but this time of year, it can feel like more of a downside.

There are efforts to deal with the heat and, in some cases, reverse the warming trends. Over the next few weeks, The Show will look into some of them — starting with Phoenix’s new Tree and Shade and Urban Heat Island Subcommittee.

Among other tasks, it’ll look at how well the city’s tree and shade master plan is being implemented and whether they can benchmark progress on the plan — to get 25 percent of the city under natural or constructed shade.

Sarah Porter, the subcommittee’s chair, said the panel hopes to make recommendations to the City Council by next spring. The Show met Porter downtown, sitting underneath a building’s overhang, with lots of trees nearby.

Mark Brodie is a co-host of The Show, KJZZ’s locally produced news magazine. Since starting at KJZZ in 2002, Brodie has been a host, reporter and producer, including several years covering the Arizona Legislature, based at the Capitol.