BOBBY BRIER / NJ SPOTLIGHT NEWS – Growing up in the Ironbound section of Newark, Christian Rodriguez remembers the summer months being hot. But it is even hotter now, they said, with more trucks rolling down the streets and a lack of tree canopy in the neighborhood.

“If you’re walking down the street or if you’re playing in a playground and there’s no shade, mentally who wants to be out in those conditions?” said Rodriguez, the manager at Down Bottom Farms, a community farm that is a project of the Ironbound Community Corporation …