A free air conditioner in every New York City apartment may sound downright utopian — and decidedly off-topic in January —but that’s what is in store for apartment dwellers across the five boroughs.
A new law requiring landlords to provide cooling to tenants at their request quietly went into effect this week, but with a long lead time for landlords. Actual enforcement by the city Department of Housing Preservation and Development is four years away, in 2030, according to Councilmember Lincoln Restler, who sponsored the legislation in the City Council.
“Many people don’t realize, but almost 600 New Yorkers die every single year from extreme heat,” Restler told Gothamist. “And the most common factor among those folks is that they lack access to cooling in the home.”…