As sweat trickled down her forehead, street vendor Teresa Rey struggled to fill grains in bags, enduring yet another hot day in San Francisco’s historic October heatwave.
“It’s very difficult because people don’t want to come out or buy anything,” said Rey, who works at a food stall at the corner of 24th and Mission. “And the night is hard, too. You can’t even sleep, so you spend the whole day tired because you don’t rest well.”
Like Rey, many Latinx workers bore the brunt of the city’s extreme heat, coping with environments ill-equipped to handle temperatures that surpassed 100 degrees on Wednesday and Sunday in some neighborhoods.
In a city known for its cool fog, many older buildings were not designed to accommodate modern cooling systems. San Francisco also has some of the lowest rates of air conditioner usage in the country, making the rare but increasingly common bouts of heat difficult to escape — especially for those who work outdoors or in small, unventilated spaces.
The Mission’s microclimate is already one of the warmest in the city year-round. During the heatwave, it got even warmer, leaving street vendors and service workers to find ways to adapt to the extreme weather.
At Taqueria Guadalajara on 24th Street, Manuel and his coworker Pancho grilled carne asada over an open flame, heating up the Mexican restaurant’s kitchen even more during an already hot afternoon.
“It feels like hell,” Manuel said. He began drinking water with salt to stay hydrated after feeling like he was going to pass out on Sunday.
A few blocks away, under a multicolored umbrella, Irma Sánchez prepared a cup of chopped cucumber with lime juice and chamoy for a customer. The heat, she said, is something she’s used to, having worked at a restaurant for ten years before starting her own cart selling fruit and shaved ice in March.
“Warm weather does bring in more sales, and what we sell the most is ice,” Sánchez said. On Monday, she kept moving her cart to the shade and made sure to bring a hat.
Although San Francisco is used to warm weather in September and October, this year’s eight-day heat wave broke daily records in some parts of the city. Scientists warn that such events will only intensify in the coming years due to climate change, disproportionately affecting low-income communities and workers like Rey and Sánchez.
Not everyone is trying to escape the growing heat, though. Sitting on an empty white bucket, under the glare of the mid-afternoon sun, 69-year-old Francisco peeled beans, dropping them into a small basket. He’s had this gig in the Mission for four years, he said, and these past few days have made him feel nostalgic for his old home.
“Nicaragua is just as warm so I don’t suffer here,” he told El Tecolote. “I’m not even sweating … I want more heat and sun.”
