By Gabriela Aoun, Photo: Gabriela Aoun/The Guardian, The Guardian, September 23, 2022
On the Saturday before Labor Day, in the east Los Angeles neighborhood of Boyle Heights, temperatures outside climbed to 105F (41C). It was the fourth day of California’s longest September heatwave on record. That afternoon, the entire state was under a “flex alert”, in which Californians were asked to turn down their air conditioners and unplug appliances to avoid putting so much demand on the power grid that utilities would have to intermittently cut electricity.
But at the Boyle Heights Arts Conservatory, or BHAC, children sat around a table engrossed in the role-playing game Dungeons and Dragons. The thermostat read a cool 72F.
As a chaperone set down pizza lunches, Leo Felix, 11, surveyed his figurines and strategized his next move. When asked what he would be doing on a hot day like this if he weren’t at the BHAC, Felix shrugged. “I’d probably be outside, trying not to die from heat.”
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