RICARDO KAULESSAR / NORTHJERSEY.COM – Longtime Newark resident Lenny Thomas, who resides in the Ironbound section, said that sometimes he doesn’t realize how hot his neighborhood is until he gets out of it and laterreturns.

“When you leave Newark and you go someplace else where they have maybe more trees or more green space or things like that, your body feels a little cooler,” Thomas said. “But when you come back to Newark, you say, ‘Wow, it got warmer again. What happened?’” …