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Once known as Hollywood’s desert playground, Palm Springs, located 120 miles east of Los Angeles, is a small city with the cultural appeal of a large urban hub. The area, first inhabited by Native Americans 10,000 years ago, lures visitors annually with its 350 days of sunshine, winter golfing and world-class spa resorts.

Visitors will soon be greeted at the entrance to the city at Palm Canyon Drive and Tramway Road. The Visitors’ Center is moving to the historic Albert Frey-designed building there. It will be open to the public this fall.

Web sites ci.palm-springs.ca.us pschamber.org

Palm Springs lies in the Colorado Desert at the foot of one of Southern California’s most majestic peaks — Mount San Jacinto. Palm Springs has retained much of the chic and charm it obtained in the 1930s, ’40s and ’50s, when it sheltered stars and starlets. The city’s economy revolves around tourism, real estate, health care, retail trade and personal services. In addition to housing and jobs, the city offers a number of residential amenities including convenient access to medical care, schools, libraries and parks.

The city also has many parks and recreation facilities. The biggest, Sunrise Park, has an Olympic-size pool and baseball stadium. Other city comforts include a municipal golf course, equestrian center and tennis courts. Spiritually, city residents don’t have to look far for a church or synagogue — more than 35 houses of worship are within city limits.

Shopping, cultural opportunities and entertainment outlets thrive in Palm Springs, thanks to its tourist trade. Tourism brings $1.5 billion into the Valley each year. The gay and lesbian tourist industry has also bloomed in the past decade; Gay pride events in November and “women-only” festivals are propelling the city to the forefront of gay vacation destinations, rivaling Key West, Florida.

Our reputation precedes us

Long-time Palm Springs residents, such as Robert Menefee, says the town’s fame has spread across the world. When I travel abroad, total strangers invariably ask where I’m from (maybe it’s the dopey hat, the odd accent, or the touching way I struggle to find the foreign word for “ice”). Whatever, foreigners ask where I’m from.
“Southern California,” I say.
“Ah, where?”
“A little town in the desert,” I reply.
“Hmm, which one?,” they press.
“Palm Springs,” I blurt out finally, and their eyes light up and grins appear.
“Ah, Palm Springs. I know Palm Springs.”

It always turns out that they do not know Palm Springs. They have never been here, they don’t even have a distant relative living here. What they know of my adopted town is something they picked up from the movies. Or from rumors about the movies, that is tales of the decadent, long-gone Hollywood legends who once partied naughtily under our palms.

That glittery, in-crowd Palm Springs they envision hasn’t been in evidence much for

the past few decades. A series of recessions slowed us down to a crawl. Real art galleries, nightclubs, and classy restaurants were replaced by tacky souvenir shops, fuzzy toy stores and T-shirt emporiums. The view along Palm Canyon Drive as you enter Palm Springs from the west has been, for some time now, a view of boarded-up shops.

The hot new Palm Springs

Lately, however, it seems the pendulum is swinging back. Word is out that Palm Springs is “hot” again. Los Angeles magazine started the rumor with a March 1999 story stating that “Highway 111 in Palm Springs — a.k.a. Palm Canyon Drive — is an oasis of cool in a hot desert town ... [appealing] to more than just lounge lizards and geriatric golfers.” Travel and Leisure claims we’re in the midst of a modern renaissance, largely due to the trendy fascination with mid-century modern architecture.

Ironic, isn’t it? That economic down-time we suffered through was actually a blessing in disguise. We were too poor and static to tear down all of our over-30-year-old buildings and replace them with the architecture du jour (that’s the habit in the rest of Southern California). Now people are raving about our well-preserved Bauhaus look, and flocking to our consignment stores (“mid-century mines”).

Vanity Fair, that grande dame of the sleek and chic, summed up our present appeal in this absurd name-dropping introduction to a June 1999 story about us: “The faded desert jewel of Palm Springs is sparkling once again, as trendsetters from John Travolta to Gucci’s Tom Ford rediscover its exuberant modernist aesthetic. Summoning the hedonistic past of a resort that drew a cavalcade of celebrities including Bing Crosby, Lucille Ball, and Frank Sinatra, and presidents from Eisenhower to Reagan, [we] tour its social and architectural delights: houses built by masters such as Albert Frey, John Lautner, A. Quincy Jones, and Richard Neutra and inhabited by luminaries such as Bob and Dolores Hope, Walter and Lee Annenberg, and Kirk and Anne Douglas.”

Phew. Proper noun city. That about sums up how outsiders see us today. It’s not at all how we see ourselves, of course. But it does have portent, because it’s driving an era of new building and new inhabiting that’s going to change us. Trendy new people have already moved in, and developers are planning to banish our derelict buildings and replace them with cheery new entertainment/retail bazaars. Let us pray that this resurrection will be accomplished with wisdom, good taste and an appreciation for the eclectic Palm Springs we locals know and love.

GENERAL INFORMATION:
Mayor: Ron Oden
City Hall: 3200 E. Tahquitz Canyon Way, Palm Springs CA 92262
Population: 43,997
Median Age: 47.9
Average Household Income: $39,022
Average Resale House Price: $146,313
Households with children: 45.6%
Police: 911 or 760-327-1441 (Administration.: 760-323-8116)
Fire: 911 or 760-327-1441 (Administration.: 760-323-8181)
Hospital: 911
Chamber of Commerce: 760-325-1577
Post Office: 333 East Amado Road, 800-275-8777

Schools:
The Palm Springs Unified School District: 760-416-6000

Public Parks:
Park Dept: 760-323-8272

Libraries: