Looking around my urban hellhole, which like all aging urban hellholes has its troubles, I'm again flummoxed by the idea that there's just nothing to be done jobs wise.
There are a lot of flat black roofs in Philadelphia. For a not very high per-unit cost, they could all be painted white/silver. This isn't public infrastructure per se, but it would have public benefits in terms of reducing energy use/carbon emissions, and there are also externalities impacting the heat level of the city as a whole.
The DC version of this cunning plan would be to have a program, so that organizations could apply for grants, which could then... Or maybe they'd have some tax credit which would partially offset costs.
My version is...just go to door and offer to paint peoples' roofs. I get that it's a bit more complicated than this, but not too much.
