The Brief

I recently reported from Pacoima on how “cool pavement,” a type of coating that reflects sunlight and heat, could help bring temperatures down in cities as the climate crisis pushes us into a hotter reality.

It prompted an LAist reader, Denise Davis, from Crenshaw Manor, to ask us this:

It’s a good question, because roofs and outside walls absorb a lot of heat, especially if they’re a dark color and unshaded.

That heat ends up in our homes, driving up energy costs from air conditioning and fans, and even leading to heat stroke and other dangerous health situations, felt disproportionately by low and moderate-income folks.

So the short answer is — yes — there are such things as cool roof shingles and cool paint and they’ve been around (and studied) a lot longer than cool pavement. Research shows cool roofs can cut air conditioning use by on average 20% and lower indoor temperatures by as much as 10 degrees.

“A reflective roof and a reflective wall are very simple and reliable passive strategies that don't require you to do anything other than make the right choice when it comes time to re-roof or re-paint,” said Ronnen Levinson, a cool materials scientist at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.

“It will help you now and it'll be even more useful as the climate warms.”

A brief history of 'cool roofs'

Long before air conditioning, humans have used these passive methods to stay cool. One example? The white or lighter-colored buildings that characterize cities from the Mediterranean to the Middle East. Those lighter surfaces reflect solar radiation, rather than absorb it.

White buildings that reflect sunlight characterize many Mediterranean cities, including Santorini, Greece, pictured here.

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“Ever since people have lived in hot places, they've tried to do the sensible thing, which is keep the building cool by absorbing less sunlight at its surface,” said Levinson. “North American architecture hasn't always worked that way.”

Levinson said commonly used materials on homes here, such as traditional asphalt roof shingles, make air temperatures in cities hotter than areas outside — that’s the urban heat island effect.

So a cool roof could actually be one of the quickest and most effective ways to curb that regional heat, as well as cut energy costs, especially for low- and moderate-income homeowners who tend to live in older housing and in denser neighborhoods with more pavement, said Alex Turek with GRID Alternatives, a nonprofit that installs cool roofs and rooftop solar on low-income homes for free.

“There's such a hardscape that trees may not be an option for some homeowners,” he said. “Cool roofs can definitely provide similar benefits to trees.”

White roofs

The silicone cool roof of the Bell Thrift Store in Bell.

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By 2005, research by Levinson and his predecessors helped push California to establish new building codes requiring flat commercial roofs to be painted white to alleviate that impact. Those roofs are now ubiquitous across the state.

Fast forward to 2015, when L.A. became the first major city to require all new and replaced residential buildings to have “cool roofs.”

What makes a roof or wall 'cool?'

A cool roof is simply a highly reflective roof. For example, a roof with a clean, smooth, bright white surface can reflect about 85% of sunlight, whereas a dark asphalt shingle roof can absorb as much as 95% of sunlight. Now, that could be good in a cold climate, but in hotter climates it’s not so great.

The two main components that determine how “cool” a roof is are solar reflectance (the amount of sunlight that’s reflected) and thermal emittance (the ability of that material to radiate heat).

These are measured on a scale from 0 to 1, where 1 is 100% reflective or emissive. The higher the decimals (eg 0.7 or 0.8), the cooler the roof. That’s called the solar reflectance index.

Roofs can either help absorb or reflect heat.

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The company GAF is the largest manufacturer of cool roof shingles, such as these in the picture. They look similar to traditional shingles, but reflect more light in the invisible spectrum.

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The nonprofit Cool Roof Rating Council allows you to search for different roof or wall materials based on these measurements.

While commercial roofs are usually white and made of silicone, cool roofs don’t always have to be white or light. There are "cool color" roof materials, including coatings and shingles, that use darker-colored pigments that are still highly reflective in the invisible half of the solar spectrum.

While cool roofs can provide a lot of relief in the summer, they may actually lead to more heating in the winter. However, research has shown that increase is marginal and the cost savings of a cool roof in the summer also offset that issue. Furthermore, the technology of “smart roofs” and improvements in materials are rapidly offsetting this issue. 

Other cool roof benefits

They can help extend the life of the roof because they relieve heat stress and wear on its surface, said Andres Lopez, marketing director at Central Roofing, a family owned company that installs cool roofs on commercial buildings across Southern California. “It just has too many benefits to pass up,” Lopez said.  

A cool roof also cools the air outside the building, which slows the formation of smog, said Levinson. 

At scale across commercial and residential buildings, they can actually help cool the entire planet.

"On a clear day, 75% to 80% of sunlight that is reflected from a horizontal surface like a pavement or a low slope roof will get all the way to outer space without being absorbed by the atmosphere, so that allows us to reduce warming of the planet as a whole,” Levinson said. 

Cool roofs: A how-to guide

If you don't want or need to re-roof: Apply a cool roof coating to your existing roof.

If you do need to re-roof: Install cool roof shingles.

Cost:

• Both types of cool roofs are similar in cost to traditional roofs.
• A shingle roof can be slightly more expensive.
• It’s worth factoring in the savings you’ll get from energy costs.
• Some utilities, like LADWP, offer rebates. 

What to use:

• The nonprofit Cool Roof Rating Council lists more than 3,000 cool roof shingles and coatings, and more than 80 wall paint products, among other resources.
• The company GAF, which also developed the cool pavement I wrote about previously, is the main manufacturer of cool roof shingles.
• When choosing a contractor, make sure to ask about their cool roof experience and their roofing license.

If you're online, anywhere adjacent to the World Cup, you'll see that the Argentina team, which will play England in the semifinals Wednesday, is attracting a lot of criticism.

It can be largely grouped into two categories: soccer and culture. In soccer, Argentina’s comeback win against Egypt last week prompted accusations, including from Egypt’s head coach, that the FIFA referees in that match favored Argentina.

Meanwhile, cultural clichés online accuse Argentines of being arrogant and looking down on other Latin Americans.

“I get sad,  I must say, that when I see that, it hurts me a little bit, to be honest,” said San Fernando Valley resident Roxana Lissa. She was born and raised in Argentina and moved to the U.S. more than 30 years ago.

But she's used to it.

“The thing about Argentines is we have such thick skin,” Lissa said.

California’s Argentine population has grown in the past couple of decades. The state is now home to the second-largest concentration of Argentines in the U.S. after Florida.

Exclusion by other Latinos

The negative comments are not new, but social media has fueled them into a firestorm.

Some Argentines in Southern California say they’ve not seen negativity this bad against their culture before.

Mariana Ferrero, who moved to the U.S. from Argentina when she was 13 years old, said the comments are opening old wounds of exclusion by other Latino immigrants in Southern California.

“What bothers me is [the criticism] goes beyond soccer. It's more of saying, "Oh, you're Argentinian. You're not a real Latina,'” Ferrero said.

She says many Latinos assume she’s privileged because she’s lighter skinned.

But Ferrero says her background is not like that at all. Argentina’s struggling economy led Ferrero’s parents to leave their home, their language and their country.

“We packed up. We came here. We lived with nothing in a tiny one-bedroom apartment, worked really hard, odd jobs,” she said.

Ferrero has some explanation for the hostility, however.

“I think some of it is just a perception that we come from a country that tends to be proud and tends to be loud and tends to be boisterous about our wins and about our accomplishments. And let me tell you, there's not many of them,” Ferrero said.

Since soccer prowess is one of those few wins, she says she and other Argentines are going to take this World Cup as an opportunity to be loud and proud.

IRL people love Argentines

Ferrero and Lissa say people who’ve visited Argentina gush to them about the warmth and hospitality of its people and the country’s beauty. And few people question that Argentina soccer star Lionel Messi is one of the greatest soccer players of all time.

“I was wearing my Argentina jersey,” Lissa said of a visit during the World Cup to L.A.’s Guelaguetza Oaxacan restaurant to watch Mexico play.

“People were coming to me and saying, 'I love Messi. I love Messi.' And I felt for the first time, 'Damn, I'm not being criticized,'” she said.

Pablo Baler, a professor of Latin American literature at CSU L.A., says the disconnect during this World Cup may be that people don’t believe Argentina represents the underdog soccer nations of Latin America anymore.

“At times, [the team] can feel more like a corporation than a national team, but the country it represents was in many ways the victim of the same imperial powers now competing for the title: France, England and Spain,” he said.

Baler grew up in Argentina and has many Latin American friends. He doesn’t believe the negativity against his homeland will tarnish its reputation. He said a Nicaraguan friend said to him this week that he’s proud Argentina made it to the World Cup semifinals because the team is “one of us.”

Topline

The background: In June, the City Council voted to establish the moratorium as city staff drafted a proposal for a permanent citywide ban. At the time, the moratorium was authorized for 45 days.

The issue first made its way to city hall earlier this year after a group of neighbors raised concerns that a proposed new In-N-Out in Culver City could hurt air quality and create safety issues for pedestrians.

Status of the proposed ban: Culver City staff wrote in a report to City Council this week that they’ve begun drafting a potential permanent ban on new drive-thrus citywide.

The proposal will first go to the city’s planning commission, a five-person body that makes recommendations to the City Council on development and zoning matters in the city, then head to the City Council for a final vote. Those dates have not yet been set.

One councilmember left door open for a different approach: At Monday’s meeting, Councilmember Albert Vera, who was among the four votes supporting the moratorium extension, said he would be open to seeing recommendations from the planning commission that don’t ban drive-thrus citywide outright.

The contractor building the long-awaited LAX People Mover project has filed a lawsuit alleging the city of L.A. breached its contract in several disputes.

In the suit, filed with the L.A. County Superior Court on July 9, LINXS alleges the city is misplacing blame in construction-related disputes and refusing to extend contract deadlines. LINXS also alleges it’s owed additional payment for the work as a result of the delays.

The project, a 2.25-mile-long elevated train designed to transport riders between airport terminals and local transit, is currently undergoing testing. Work on the train is scheduled to be complete “in a few months,” according to a June interview with Los Angeles World Airports CEO John Ackerman on the L.A. in a Minute podcast.

Chief among the disputes detailed in the lawsuit is one involving repairs to faulty electrical equipment in the system that powers the train, resulting in testing delays last year. LAist reported on this dispute last November and in April.

A spokesperson for LINXS said it has attempted to engage in “extensive good-faith efforts over the past two years” to resolve the ongoing contractual disputes.

A spokesperson for Los Angeles World Airports, the city agency that manages LAX, said the agency does not comment on pending litigation. They added that the agency remains committed to “delivering a safe, durable and reliable” train as soon as possible.

The L.A. City Attorney’s office did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

In its lawsuit, LINXS said that by not granting the contractor’s compensation and time-extension requests, the city is attempting to evade accountability for the delayed train, which was once expected to open in 2023 and is nearly a billion dollars over budget.

The contractor warned in its lawsuit that without an extension of contract deadlines, it might be forced to repay lenders who financed the project as soon as this fall. In that case, the contractor said in its lawsuit that it could become “insolvent and unable to perform,” adding that possibility would have “catastrophic consequences.”

Dispute over metering cabinet

Last February, staff from Los Angeles World Airports and the city’s Department of Water and Power directed LINXS to repair equipment in a metering cabinet that had degraded due to moisture and debris, as LAist previously reported.

LINXS completed the repair work, which required power to be partially shut down between February and July 2025. That temporary power disruption delayed critical testing of the technology that allows for central control of the People Mover’s systems.

LINXS said last year, and also in the current lawsuit, that the repair work is not in its scope of work. As a result, the contractor has said it's owed compensation and a minimum of a 141-day extension to complete construction.

“Since then, [Los Angeles World Airports] has stonewalled the discussions of [LINXS’] compensation and a time extension,” the contractor alleges in its lawsuit.

LINXS, citing information it received from a public records request, alleges the issue stemmed from an instance where LADWP opened the metering cabinet in September 2024 to rectify design issues with the equipment contained in it.

Whereas past disputes between LINXS and the airport were resolved through settlements that have so far totaled hundreds of millions of dollars and resulted in schedule extensions, the dispute over maintaining electrical equipment has been uniquely contentious.

“Other relief events that we’ve dealt with up to this point … we could agree there were some things that were not totally within LINXS’ control,” Jake Adams, an airport executive who is overseeing $5.5 billion in LAX upgrades, said in an interview with LAist in April. “This relief event is very different. We believe there is absolutely no merit to this claim.”

The lawsuit also alleges that the contractor is owed additional time and money for several other ongoing disputes, including that Los Angeles World Airports is refusing to sign a power agreement with LADWP for solar panels installed as part of the People Mover project and that workers on separate airport projects have “demolished” work LINXS completed for the train.

What’s the status of the People Mover?

The People Mover is operating in a testing phase where it simulates how the train will operate when it begins shuttling travelers between airport terminals and the L.A. Metro system.

The testing of the train won’t be impacted by the lawsuit, a spokesperson for Los Angeles World Airports told LAist.

A hearing on the case filed last week has been scheduled for December, according to the L.A. County Superior Court’s website.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement will pause non-urgent vehicle stops after two deadly shootings in less than a week, Maine Sen. Angus King's office tells NPR.

King spokesman Matthew Felling says the Department of Homeland Security confirmed the policy shift. Maine Sen. Susan Collins also posted Tuesday on X that she had called for change.

"I spoke with DHS Secretary [Markwayne] Mullin last night and urged him to cease all non-urgent vehicle stops," she wrote.

DHS told NPR in a statement that it will not "disclose or discuss law enforcement tactics," and it's unclear what this change will look like in practice.

The most recent death happened Monday in Biddeford, Maine, where ICE agents tried to pull over the car of 26-year-old Joan Durán Guerrero, a Colombian national.

"The vehicle attempted to flee the scene, and fearing for public safety, an officer discharged his weapon," DHS said in a statement. However, the agency has not provided any evidence to back the claims. The agents were not wearing body cameras.

Last week, Lorenzo Salgado Araujo was shot by agents in Houston after they attempted to pull him over. The Department of Homeland Security says Salgado Araujo tried to use his van as a weapon, prompting an agent to fire their weapon. But passengers in the van have disputed this account.

Paul Hunker, the former chief counsel of ICE in Dallas, told NPR the standards and principles of when to discharge a firearm are clear.

"I was an attorney for the officers — the person has to pose an imminent threat of harm to use deadly force," Hunker said.

He said whether the person poses an imminent threat is always from the perspective of the officer.

DHS policy

The Department of Homeland Security's policy says deadly force cannot be used solely to prevent someone from fleeing … unless the person poses a significant threat of death or serious physical harm to the agent or others.

DHS accused Salgado Araujo of weaponizing his car against the ICE officer. In Maine, the agency said Durán Guerrero posed a public safety threat.

But in these cases, there hasn't been video evidence to back up those allegations.

The latest development has been welcomed by former DHS officials who said a reset is needed in order to regain the trust of the public and ensure no more lives are lost.

"That person could flee and present a big danger to people around them … that's one of the reasons I think there are few vehicle chases because of the danger and the harm that could happen if one of those goes bad." Hunker said.

He said in the past, ICE's preference has been to assume custody of the undocumented immigrants who were already in jails, making it safer for the agents.

Sarah Saldaña, a former ICE acting director under President Barack Obama, said the shift in policy is a good start.

"I think it's a very practical thing to do until the agency can get its officers more properly trained and attuned to what their effort is," Saldaña said. "Immigration enforcement should not be a deadly endeavor — it should be a method by which to make sure that people are complying with the law."

Despite the shift in policy, there are a lot of outstanding questions about what led to the fatal shootings of Salgado Araujo in Houston last week, and of Durán Guerrero in Maine this week.

None of the federal immigration agents were wearing body cameras, according to the Department of Homeland Security.

After the shooting of Renee Good and Alex Pretti in Minneapolis in January, DHS vowed to quickly deploy body cameras to federal immigration agents nationwide.

But that hasn't happened.

The agency is blaming Democrats in Congress and the partial government shutdowns for this. But it is, again, vowing to deploy body cameras for all agents in the next 60 days.

That footage would have been key to knowing whether the agents followed protocol or not, and to hold the agents accountable, said Lauren Bonds, the executive director of the nonprofit National Police Accountability Project.

"Luckily in both instances there were witnesses, independent witnesses, that observed some things and were able to share some information," Bonds said. "But it's really hard to be able to hold ICE agents accountable in any manner if all we're getting from DHS right now is kind of vague statements about the car being used in a way that was either threatening the ICE agents or, in the case of Maine, threatening the public."

Bonds said the public needs to keep demanding answers and independent investigations to create a change in policy — like the pause on traffic stops made public Tuesday.

NPR's Meg Anderson contributed reporting.