Awnings! I love them. I've spent much of the last year wandering South Minneapolis, or more accurately wandering Kingfield and Lyndale, and you can see a lot of awnings during these wanderings, some of which might be original to the 1920s facades they're attached to. Of course there are also the classics: metal awnings from the 80s, cloth awnings (reproduction and hilariously modern), and "As Seen on TV" retractable awnings. About 75% of the awnings I see, however, aren't where they're needed most: on the south- and west-facing sides of large apartment buildings overlooking parking lots, streets with no trees, and other structures that radiate a ton of heat.

What gives? Well, I have a few theories. The first is that landlords are cheapskate demons, and my source is having lived in rented houses from age 3 to age 23. This is definitely part of it, but of course landlords being cheapskate demons can be legislated to account for. We do not, however, take heat mitigation very seriously, despite living in a region where it's really important - arguably more important than in the South, where air conditioning continues to become more and more of a necessity. Up here, 80% of the time, you will be just fine without air conditioning of any form. For the other 20% of the time, these awning-free buildings say: hey, sorry man, but this isn't my fault. Get a window unit.

And then people do, because they're around $300 a pop, and presumably the resultant no-more-buttcheek-sweat euphoria makes them forget about why they had to buy the unit to begin with.

Climate change. Yes. But also: their landlord did not bother to prevent their enormous brick 1960s apartment building from heating like a Ford Escalade in a North Carolina Walmart parking lot.

Look, we're all going to need air conditioning in the coming decades because we have turned the earth into an oven. But there's needing air conditioning when it hits 100, and then there's needing air conditioning the moment it cracks 80. If you're in the latter group, get yourself some awnings. Get some trees. Learn to use your shades. Buy a huge fan to exhaust hot air out of your house. Mitigation is important! I go on a lot of evening walks, and on days when the heat breaks and it drops down to 60 relatively early, people still have their windows bolted shut and their huge AC units blasting. It's sad, and reportedly causing autoimmune problems in kids.

I don't really have a point here. I just like awnings. I am not related to awnings salesmen in any way. Thank you.