The Brief

The men's soccer World Cup kicks off next week at 16 stadiums across North America, just as summer weather arrives in many of the host cities. Millions of fans, players and workers could be exposed to potentially harmful heat, an NPR analysis finds.

More than one-third of World Cup matches are at high risk for dangerously hot, humid conditions, NPR found, and dozens more matches come with moderate heat risk.

NPR looked at two decades of temperature data for each host city, as well as the time each World Cup match is scheduled to start, and checked those temperatures against heat hazard guidelines from the Occupational Safety and Health Administration and the American College of Sports Medicine.

The high-risk events identified in NPR's analysis include multiple high-profile matches, such as the game that determines which team takes home third place in the World Cup, and the World Cup final.

"Players can overheat, and match officials as well," says Donal Mullan, a climate scientist at Queen's University Belfast, who co-authored a study last year about heat risk at the 2026 World Cup.

"They can also overheat and collapse," Mullan warns. "This has happened to people."

In an email to NPR, a spokesperson for FIFA, the governing body for international soccer, wrote that the organization "is committed to protecting the health and safety of players, referees, fans, volunteers and staff."

FIFA scheduled many games for cooler afternoon and evening hours, added extra water breaks for players and referees and installed air conditioning on the sidelines for those who are sitting on the benches, the email states.

"Outdoor matches during the hottest parts of the day have been strategically limited, kick-off times adjusted in certain markets, and matches expected in warmer windows prioritized for covered stadiums where possible," the email also states. FIFA did not respond to further questions about why some matches were nonetheless scheduled for high-risk locations and times.

When the weather is especially hot, "spectators will be permitted to bring one factory-sealed water bottle, and venues will activate additional cooling capacity, including shaded areas, misting systems, cooling buses and expanded water distribution," the FIFA spokesperson wrote to NPR.

FIFA did not respond to questions about how hot it would need to be to trigger protections, whether every venue has misting systems available or whether workers at stadiums would have the same access as spectators.

Dangerous heat and limited cooling

Out of the 104 games, 67 of them are being held at locations and times that come with potential danger for heat illnesses, with 39 of those at high risk, according to their historical wet bulb globe temperature (WBGT). The WBGT measurement is a strong indicator of overall heat risk because it takes into account humidity, shade and solar radiation to calculate the temperature.

"All hot weather is dangerous, but hot, humid weather tends to be more dangerous," says Jennifer Vanos, who studies heat policy at Arizona State University.

Miami, Houston, Dallas and Atlanta rank near the top in temperature for their games, with averages as high as 84 degrees Fahrenheit. Attendees and workers in those stadiums will have air conditioning.

Stadiums in other parts of the U.S. don't have the same infrastructure, with games in Philadelphia, New Jersey and Kansas City, Mo., averaging as high as 79 F with no roofs covering their stadiums.

Miami's stadium is the hottest venue without air conditioning. The historical average temperature this time of year is around 80 F. That threatens multiple matches with dangerously hot weather, including the match that determines which team wins third place in the tournament.

Multiple scientific studies have come to similar conclusions, including one published last month by researchers at Imperial College London and collaborators, who found that about a quarter of World Cup games this summer are likely to be held while temperatures exceed 79 F.

It is possible that individual matches in Miami and other high-risk cities will get lucky and see overcast skies and cooler-than-average temperatures. But climate change makes such luck less likely. Overall summer temperatures across North America are steadily rising, as global warming drives longer, hotter heat waves. The last 10 years were the hottest decade ever recorded on Earth.

The risk is not theoretical

The dangers of hot, humid weather are not new to professional soccer players and tournament organizers, though the risks are getting more pronounced as the planet warms.

The last men's World Cup tournament was held in the winter because of concerns about dangerously hot, humid weather in the host country of Qatar. Summer weather in Qatar's capital is often so hot and muggy that the human body can no longer cool itself by sweating.

Many North American cities also get extremely hot and humid, and heat emergencies have happened at professional soccer matches in the United States in the past.

Two years ago, hot, humid weather caused a health emergency at a stadium in Kansas City, Kansas. During a June 25, 2024, international soccer match, referee Humberto Panjoj collapsed on the field due to heat illness and had to be rushed to the hospital.

A nearby stadium in Kansas City, Mo., will host the World Cup match between Tunisia and the Netherlands exactly two years later, on June 25, 2026, raising concerns about the safety of conditions during that upcoming game.

At another 2024 match, held in Miami, a star player for Uruguay left the game at halftime and later told The Athletic that he suffered from dizziness and dehydration.

In 2017, professional soccer player Rachel Daly collapsed due to heat exhaustion during a match in Houston, despite additional water breaks during the game. She recovered and later posted on X: "those conditions are not safe to play at your maximum."

The sport's largest players union, FIFPRO, has expressed concern about player safety at the 2026 World Cup. FIFPRO did not respond to specific questions from NPR about heat safety at the tournament.

The reasons for avoiding the heat of the day go beyond protecting player and fan health. Soccer is a more dynamic game when it's played in cooler weather, studies have found, because players run faster and cover more ground.

Evening games are safer than afternoon ones

One of the simplest ways to protect people from hot weather during the World Cup is to schedule games for the evening, when temperatures are slightly cooler and there is less direct sunlight.

"The heat risk goes down significantly after about 6 o'clock in the evening, typically," Mullan says. "FIFA have by and large avoided the worst times of the day."

In an email to NPR, a FIFA spokesperson wrote that the organization took such considerations into account when it created the World Cup schedule.

FIFA did not answer questions about why the World Cup final is scheduled for the heat of the day, 3 p.m., on July 19 at an uncovered stadium outside New York City.

That start time, during the hottest part of the day, may have been chosen to maximize the global audience, much of which is located in later time zones. An evening start time would have required fans in Europe, Africa and Asia to tune in late at night or in the very early morning.

But the heat risk at that match is clear, Mullan says. "Obviously, if you schedule these matches for the midafternoon at some of these hottest locations, then that's your recipe for disaster," he explains. NPR's analysis found that the World Cup final match is likely to see wet bulb globe temperatures of 79 F, putting players and fans at risk for dangerously hot, humid weather.

World Cup fans and workers are also at risk for heat illness

The players and referees running around on the field are not the only ones at risk from very hot weather. Spectators and workers are also threatened.

That's because you don't need to be exercising to be affected by heat illness.

"I think about the person dying at the Taylor Swift concert in Brazil," says Vanos, of Arizona State University. In 2023, a Brazilian university student died while waiting for a brutally hot concert by the pop star.

In 2024, more than 1,300 people died during the Hajj, when that pilgrimage coincided with very hot weather in Saudi Arabia.

Both of those tragedies occurred during heat waves, when temperatures exceeded 100 F. While average summer temperatures in World Cup host cities generally remain lower than that, North American heat waves in recent years have led to triple-digit temperatures. And climate change means record-breaking heat waves are happening more often.

Vanos says large gatherings, like concerts, pilgrimages and sporting events, exacerbate the threat posed by heat because people are in large crowds, often visiting areas they are unfamiliar with. "Understanding the local context of the climate, where you can go to get water, where the water is safe, where you can go to find air conditioning — all of these things that sometimes it's easy to take for granted, but that can actually be really hard to find and get if you're in a really different context that you've never been in before," Vanos explains.

More than 6 million tickets are available for World Cup matches, according to FIFA, although the organization is not disclosing exactly how many it has sold.

Such a large event requires thousands of extra workers and overtime hours for local employees, many of whom will be working outside. The federal government is spending $625 million on local security in U.S. host cities — for example, NPR member station KCUR reports that Kansas City is using $59 million of that funding to cover police overtime at matches and extra officers from other locations.

Vanos says such workers could face dangerously hot conditions, especially if they're exposed to the sun during the hottest part of the day. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration recommends that workers be given water and shade breaks to prevent heat illness, but some states, including Florida, do not have laws on the books to enforce such recommendations.

This story was edited by Neela Banerjee. The graphics were edited by Alyson Hurt.
Copyright 2026 NPR

A California State University president who stepped down following a multi-million dollar settlement in a case accusing him of gender-based discrimination and harassment will earn a six-figure salary this coming year while he’s in between Cal State jobs.

During the transition period, former Cal State San Bernardino President Tomás Morales will provide international consulting for Cal State and work on strengthening the university’s international initiatives and global partnerships.

Morales announced his plans for departure last August and officially left the university at the end of this school year, joining an executive transition program in which he will be paid $343,920 over a year-long period starting this August. This salary is typical for Cal State executives in this program, said Cal State Chancellor Mildred Garcia, who announced Morales’ interim role at a board of trustees committee meeting Wednesday.

The board of trustees also unanimously granted Morales president emeritus status Wednesday afternoon, a title given as a gesture of appreciation for his service to the university.

Morales, and a former dean at San Bernardino’s Palm Desert campus, Jake Zhu, were accused of gender-based discrimination, harassment and retaliation in a 2023 lawsuit that Cal State recently settled for $12 million. Clare Weber and Anissa Rogers, both former San Bernardino administrators, alleged they were instructed to resign after reporting a gender pay gap and discriminatory bullying to higher-ups.

Cal State continues to deny any wrongdoing and determined Morales to be in good standing, which renders him eligible for the transition program. Executives may become ineligible if the chancellor finds they violated university policy or engaged in serious misconduct.

Weber, who alleged she was fired weeks after asking Morales for a raise over email to bridge what she called a gender-based pay gap, said the ex-president should not remain in good standing.

Male Cal State employees “are protected when they behave badly, when they mistreat women, when they harass women, when they retaliate against them,” Weber said. “The tendency is to protect the university.”

Morales’ office did not respond to a request for comment.

Morales, new campus president still high earners

During the year-long transition period, Morales will be required to submit a monthly report to the chancellor chronicling “activities and milestones completed,” according to a board document.

“President Tomás Morales has served Cal State San Bernardino with distinction for 14 years, demonstrating exceptional leadership on behalf of the university and his students,” Garcia said at the meeting.

Morales will also provide guidance and support to incoming Cal State San Bernardino president S. Terri Gomez, Garcia said at the meeting. Gomez, the current provost and vice president of Academic Affairs at Cal Poly Pomona, will assume the role on Aug. 3.

The committee approved a $426,916 annual salary, $60,000 annual housing allowance, and additional auto allowance of $1,000 per month for Gomez when she takes office.

Gomez made $338,255 in base pay in 2024, per the latest available data from Transparent California.

In 2024, 69 out of Cal State’s 118,843 employees earned a salary higher than $343,920, according to the State Controller’s Office. Morales’ salary was $527,834 in 2024 — the sixth-highest earning salary in the Cal State system, behind the chancellor and four other campus presidents. The average university salary in 2024 was $39,870, according to the office.

San Bernardino’s chapter of the California Faculty Association labor union asked Cal State to open an investigation into university administrators perpetuating gender discrimination and deny Morales executive transition benefits in a social media post yesterday.

Morales’ transition assignment will last from Aug. 3, 2026, to Aug. 2, 2027. During this period, Morales will transfer to the Management Personnel Plan, granting him the employment rights and benefits of university managers and supervisors, Cal State spokesperson Amy Bentley-Smith said.

Bentley-Smith did not respond to a request for comment on what job Morales will take after the transition period, which should have been previously decided, according to a 2022 Board of Trustees agenda item outlining the policy.

“We are deeply grateful for President Morales’ outstanding leadership at Cal State San Bernardino and systemwide,” Garcia said at Wednesday's meeting.

No members of the board of trustees committee made any comments or asked any questions after Garcia’s announcement.

Phoebe Huss is a contributor with the College Journalism Network, a collaboration between CalMatters and student journalists from across California. CalMatters higher education coverage is supported by a grant from the College Futures Foundation.

This article was originally published on CalMatters and was republished under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives license.

Possibly the chicest and most indulgent way to unwind after a long day of work is with a perfectly-chilled martini in hand. Still, it’s usually a treat: martinis are famously high-brow beverages, and finding one that won’t break the bank in L.A. can prove difficult.

But if you know where to look, you’ll find that the city has plenty of martini deals. These five spots all stir up a delicious martini, and all of them offer generous happy hours where each ‘tini is $10 a pop.

Cento Raw Bar (West Adams) 

There are many reasons to love Cento Raw Bar, the sister restaurant to Cento Pasta Bar next door, and one of L.A.’s dining scene’s newest darlings. For starters, it looks like a mermaid’s cave, but looks aren’t all this sweet oceanic outpost has to offer. Martinis and oysters, obviously, are a match made in heaven, and diving into Cento’s $10 “golden hour” (from 5-6 p.m.) martini-oyster is as delightful as it sounds. The martinis are made with gin or vodka and arrive in fun, color-blocked glassware. If you order yours dirty, you’ll get your olives on a little dish on the side. They’re well-balanced, perfectly chilled, and wonderful to wash down oysters with.

Dante (Beverly Hills)

The dirty and Dante martinis play nice together.

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I’ve never had a bad martini in New York City, which is why Dante — a classic New York joint with a stunning location in Beverly Hills — is a must for a martini happy hour in my book. It’s famous for the tricolor olives in its signature ‘tini (a powerful blend of Ford’s gin, Ketel One vodka, Noilly Prat vermouth, Dolin Blanc vermouth, Nardini Cedro liqueur, olive and lemon bitters), but the dirty here never disappoints.

Like all good things, Dante’s dirty martini is deceivingly simple: Reyka vodka, olive oil, olive bitters and a pinch of salt with a dose of olive brine mist. Olives come chilled on the side. Martini hour is 3-5 p.m. daily.

Found Oyster (East Hollywood)

Olive lovers will find Found Oyster’s martini delightful.

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Cecilia Seiter

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The folks behind Found Oyster knew what they were doing when they married excellent seafood, wine and martinis in their bustling neighborhood bistro.

You’ll find $10 martinis everyday from 4-6 p.m. here, and you can order your martini with olives, onion or a twist. The dirty martini is generous, with fat, blue cheese-stuffed olives served on the lip of a chilled Nick and Nora. There’s plenty to sample from the raw bar — seafood platters, scallop tostadas and sea urchin service — and the large plates, like the wedge salad and the pork caesar schnitzel, are not to be missed.

Maydan (West Adams) 

Don’t miss out on Maydan’s happy hour snacks.

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Courtesy Maydan

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There’s something beautiful about a martini that subtly departs from tradition, and Maydan, the acclaimed Lebanese-inspired restaurant inside its eponymous food hall, delivers on this front.

The Za’atar martini brings together olive oil washed vodka, dry vermouth and sumac-sesame oil for a savory spin on a classic cocktail. Happy hour is Tuesday through Thursday 5-7 p.m. You’ll also find discounted snacks on the happy hour menu, like charcoal-grilled kebabs and housemade dips.

The Nice Guy (West Hollywood) 

Jazz and martinis were made for each other.

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Courtesy The Nice Guy

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Martini Mondays are a great excuse to leave the house on a weeknight. West Hollywood’s The Nice Guy offers a generous range of $10 martinis, including dry, dirty and espresso martinis paired with live Italian jazz. You can also order a $30 martini meal to the tune of a burger, fries and martini (the Classic) or a Caesar salad, rigatoni Bolognese and a martini (the Mr. Nice Guy.)

Genaro and Catalina Ventura moved to the South L.A. neighborhood of Jefferson Park more than 25 years ago. The Craftsman-style house they found was a dream — spacious, with a yard where they could garden and their children and dog could play.

What they didn’t know before moving in was that just a few hundred yards behind the house is an active oil drilling site.

Genaro Ventura, a now-retired custodian for the city of L.A., worked nights. When he’d come home around 2 a.m., the smell of oil and chemicals was often strong in the air.

“Since the night is quiet, there’s no traffic or smog,” Genaro Ventura told LAist in Spanish. “You can really smell the air from the drill site, and it’s a terrible odor.”

[“Como la noche es calmada, pues no hay tráfico, no hay smog, y puede uno pues percibir el aire del drill site, y es un olor muy feo."]

Five years after the family moved in, Genaro was diagnosed with cancer in his left kidney and had to have it removed. In 2013, a brain tumor led to another surgery, and the following year another brain tumor required radiation treatment. He has to return regularly for scans. Most recently he’s developed lung cancer and is scheduled to start chemotherapy.

With no family history of cancer, the Venturas suspect the illnesses are related to air pollution from the nearby drill site.

And it’s not just Genaro Ventura. The family’s last dog died of cancer. Their elderly chihuahua now has cancer, too. Two of Catalina Ventura’s friends nearby were also diagnosed with cancer and recently moved away. Their son and many children in the neighborhood grew up with asthma.

“I’d like to leave here,” Catalina Ventura said in Spanish. “But we can’t — this is our home and we like the area, plus we don't have the money to move, so we’ve stayed here despite everything we’ve gone through.”

[“Yo me quisiera ir de aqui. Pero no podemos porque estamos aquí, es nuestra casa y nos gusta el área, pero tampoco tenemos dinero para movernos, así que seguimos aquí a pesar de lo que sufrimos.”]

Now, after more than a decade of community organizing, the drill site could be shut down. The city has scheduled a hearing this week to consider revoking E&B Natural Resource’s license to operate the site.

The Murphy Drill Site in the Jefferson Park neighborhood of Los Angeles.

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“It is really the  best chance we have ever had to see this toxic industrial site shut down and removed from our neighborhood,” longtime South L.A. resident Richard Parks said at a recent community town hall at a church down the road from the drill site. Parks is the president of the nonprofit Redeemer Community Partnership, a group that has spearheaded the shutdown effort.

In response to questions from LAist, a spokesperson for E&B emphasized the company’s compliance with regulations and said the facility “plays an important role in supplying locally produced petroleum to the Los Angeles Basin.”

The spokesperson also pointed to a July report the company commissioned from environmental consulting firm Roux Associates. The report says “the administrative record contains no scientific evidence that the Murphy site jeopardizes or adversely affects public health or safety of nearby residents or workers.”

Daniel Murphy's home was a sprawling estate on West Adams Boulevard in the early 20th century.

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Courtesy L.A. Public Library

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Why an oil drilling site is in the middle of a neighborhood 

What’s known as the Murphy drill site on West Adams Boulevard sits atop the vast Las Cienegas oil field.

The site’s name comes from Daniel Murphy, a business tycoon who lived on an estate there in the early 20th century.

Murphy, who made his money in cement, oil and railroads, was also a devout Roman Catholic, so after his death, his family donated the property to the Archdiocese of Los Angeles. For decades, the Archdiocese has leased the property to various oil companies. Most recently, the site has been operated by E&B Natural Resources.

In a statement, the Archdiocese told LAist it "has no direct control over the facility" and that "the health and well-being of the community remain a priority." It added that the Church understands E&B has complied with regulations "and has taken efforts to address the concerns of the community."

Although oil wells are present throughout Los Angeles, the effects are largely unequal. Through the mid-20th century, racist housing laws and discriminatory lending practices relegated people of color to certain neighborhoods.

Jefferson Park was one of those redlined neighborhoods and remains home to mostly Black and Latino residents.

A 2022 study found twice the number of oil and gas wells in historically redlined neighborhoods, with L.A. topping the list.

A Google maps screenshot of the Murphy drill site, owned by E & B Natural Resources, in the Jefferson Park neighborhood of L.A.

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Google Maps

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How much oil is produced at the Murphy drill site? 

Since 2018, Oildale, California-based E&B Natural Resources has operated the Murphy drill site.

Production of crude oil at the site peaked in 1973 at about 1,588 barrels per day, and of natural gas in 1981 at about 533 barrels, according to a 2024 amortization study commissioned by the city.

Ever since, production has declined. In 2022, E&B extracted some 251 barrels per day of oil and 21 barrels of natural gas from the Murphy site — a relatively small amount by oil production standards. All oil drilling within L.A. city limits now makes up less than 2% of the state’s oil.

In a statement to LAist, a spokesperson for E&B said the site remains valuable.

“Maintaining responsible local production also helps meet regional energy needs with resources produced close to where they are ultimately consumed,” the company spokesperson wrote.

Where oil and gas comes from in California.

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Courtesy CJM Petroleum Consulting Inc.

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The health effects of living near oil drilling

Today, it’s easy to miss the Murphy drill site. A mass of piping and oil wells is hidden behind a wall and manicured hedges, and next door to low-income apartments, an AIDS Healthcare Foundation clinic and an education center for children with hearing loss. A church, library, elementary school and high school are also nearby.

At the convent directly behind the site, Roman Catholic nuns are tasked with caring for the sick who call for them.

On a recent afternoon, Sister Claudia  of the Servants of Mary told LAist in Spanish that dark soot often covers the roof and walls of the building.

“A black dust settles even on the leaves of the trees and gets into the house," she said.

[“Un polvo negro que se queda hasta en las hojas de los árboles y entra a la casa."]

Many of the sisters have allergies they never had before living there, she said, and two of the sisters have cancer.

Sister Claudia, left, and Sister Maria de Jesus of the Servants of Mary convent in Jefferson Park.

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Since at least 2014, the site has been the cause of dozens of complaints to local air quality regulators. People who live or work nearby have reported strong oil and chemical odors, noise and other concerns, according to records obtained by local nonprofit Redeemer Community Partnership and shared with LAist.

For more than a decade, the group and its partners have organized to gain more protections on the site and, ultimately, shut the drilling down.

They’ve gathered the experiences of nearby residents, many of whom have suffered multiple miscarriages, respiratory illness and cancer. Numerous studies have found that people living near oil wells, which have been found to leak carcinogens like benzene, are more likely to have higher rates of asthma, preterm births and cancer.

But such research is not enough to shut a site down, and it’s hard to prove exactly where those illnesses come from. So over the last decade, academic researchers have partnered with the community to try to do just that.

“The burden is often placed on the community to prove they're being harmed,” said Jill Johnston, an environmental health researcher at U.C. Irvine and previously USC, where she led the oil drilling research. “ We're trying to establish some of this data-driven evidence to support the observations that people have experienced for decades.”

The researchers and community members installed air monitors near Murphy and another nearby drill site. They found that the closer to the site people lived, the more likely they were to have reduced lung function.

“The amount of reduction we see is similar to what you would experience from living with a smoker,” Johnston said.

E&B disputes the findings, arguing that it did not measure "actual site emissions or exposure and cannot establish causation."

In another study, the researchers partnered with the community to collect hundreds of toenail clippings to measure toxic metals associated with oil drilling. They compared them to clippings from people not near drill sites.

“The closer you live to an oil drilling site, the more production it has, the more nickel and manganese that you have in your body,” Johnson said, explaining the study’s findings at a recent town hall ahead of the Thursday hearing.

Too much of such metals in the body can lead to a variety of symptoms, including respiratory and nervous system issues. At high exposure levels, nickel has been linked to an increased risk of cancer.

Signs in various languages warn of the potential for dangerous gas at the Murphy drill site.

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The Murphy drill site is in a neighborhood with a convent, homes and schools.

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Isabel Avila

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How to shut down a drill site

The organizing paid off. In 2023, the community won a hearing from the city to consider adding new regulations to protect public health. Those new rules would extend protections currently in use in wealthier, whiter parts of L.A. They included enclosing the site and using electric equipment instead of diesel where possible. E&B’s permit also limits operations to between 7 a.m. and 7 p.m.

But after an appeal from E&B, the city rolled many requirements back. For example, the site no longer is required to use electric equipment — E&B recently started burning more gas for electricity on site.

The site is also still not enclosed, despite the three-year-old mandate from the city. Neighbors say they have on multiple occasions seen, heard or smelled operations outside of the allowed hours.

“ They know the rules, but they choose not to follow them,” Parks said.

In a statement to LAist, a spokesperson for E&B said the enclosing of the site has been delayed due to complex permitting requirements from the city and that the company “is awaiting action by the city on the necessary approvals.”

In recent years, under E&B’s purview, the Murphy site has logged dozens of violations from the South Coast Air Quality Management District, the state and the L.A. Fire Department, according to public records obtained by Redeemer Community Partnership and shared with LAist, as well as publicly available data.

Since 2019, some of the most concerning violations have been for at least four methane leaks greater than 50,000 parts per million — the explosive level of the gas. In January last year, an inspector identified a leak at 209,000 parts per million, four times that limit.

Outside of L.A., the state recently fined the company more than $1 million for violations at a site in Bakersfield, which the company has appealed.

Now, the city is considering revoking E&B’s permit to operate the site. City Councilmember Heather Hutt, who represents the area, called for a hearing after being presented with the evidence from local residents.

“The city and the community’s attempts to regulate and mitigate this site over the decades has failed,” Hutt wrote in a letter to the city’s zoning administrator ahead of the Thursday hearing. “I am calling for the zoning administrator to revoke this use and continue to reset the balance between community needs and corporate laxity in urban Los Angeles.”

Neighbors of the Murphy drill site have been fighting to get it shut down for years. They held a town hall July 18.

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Signs and slogans were common at the July 18 town hall. Others read "Save South L.A." and "End neighborhood drilling."

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What’s next

During the city’s hearing to consider revoking E&B’s permit the zoning administrator will hear testimony from residents, who can sign up and submit their comments during the meeting or ahead of time. Meanwhile, E&B plans to present its rebuttal to city staff’s latest report on compliance at the site and other concerns.

At the town hall, Parks discussed another drill site, a little over a mile away, called the Jefferson site.

He and other local residents successfully campaigned to get that site shut down, too. The oil company that owned the property eventually decided to sell instead of facing litigation and the cost of carrying out practices to better protect public health. In 2023, Parks and his group secured grants to purchase the property, where they plan to build a park and permanently affordable housing.

“Bit by bit, an amazing transformation is taking place,” Parks said at the recent town hall. “We are receiving beauty for ashes. … If we show up and we share our stories, if we call for environmental justice, if we call for care for our common home, we are well-positioned to build something beautiful and enduring for our community.”

Catalina and Genaro Molina at home.

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After the town hall, Catalina and Genaro Ventura returned home and sat outside on their porch. They said they hope this is a turning point to better protect future generations.

“I hope the city becomes aware and does something for the people, for the animals, for the children, for the elderly. For everyone, for everyone,” Catalina Ventura said in a Spanish.

[“Y pues que la ciudad tome conciencia y haga algo por la gente, por los animales, por los niños, por los ancianos. Por todos, por todos."]