Sunday, June 5, 2011

Wednesday, June 1, 2011

The Downside to Living in Palm Springs

It's not hard to read about how wonderful life in Palm Springs is...and it definitely has its upside...but THIS post is about what I HATE about living in Palm Springs.

MY NUMBER ONE COMPLAINT about living in Palm Springs is NOT about the HEAT; rather, it's about how making it through the hot months of the year could be made SO MUCH MORE TOLERABLE if certain humans would do certain things to lessen the severity of the heat.

For example, WHAT IS THE DEAL with the obsessive butchering/trimming of TREES?? Just when a tree gets large enough to provide us with some welcome SHADE on hot days, BOOM! The so-called gardeners swoop in and give the trees a butchering, a severe buzz-cut.

LEAVE THE DAMN TREES ALONE! Especially in parking lots where shade becomes as valuable as gold in the summertime to motorists looking to keep their cars cool.

People are always bitching about how business slows during the summer months when the "snowbirds" gather up and fly back to Canada (or Montana, or whatever). Well, I'll tell you how to attract customers in droves during the hot months: give us shaded parking, and lots of it!

My SECOND biggest complaint about Palm Springs? THE WIND! Particularly on the north side of town, you cannot enjoy being outside because it is so damn windy. Especially in the afternoons...it's like clockwork: the wind kicks up and any outdoor activity has to be cancelled.

When I first moved to Palm Springs, someone told me that he moved out of the north end of town when the wind literally blew his cat over!

My third complaint? The FLIES. Now, I don't know if this is a problem city-wide, but we cannot eat a meal outside on our patio because the minute that we sit down to eat, the damn FLIES start attacking us and our food! And you KNOW where flies like to spend time, don't you? No, we cannot eat outside.

AND ANOTHER THING: The lack of bridges on Vista Chino, Gene Autry, Cathedral Canyon, and Indian Canyon at the wash. When it's windy, the roads get closed because of blowing sand; when it rains heavily, the roads get closed because of flooding. It's a MAJOR HEADACHE for getting around this area when these roads are closed.

OTHER MISCELLANEOUS COMPLAINTS:

DOWNTOWN PALM SPRINGS:

No public restrooms.

Vacant storefronts and vacant parcels of land.

No grocery store.

Poor circulation due to a lack of a uniform street grid, and the fact that Indian and Palm Canyon were converted to a one-way couplet.

SIDEWALKS: Many busy streets lack continuous sidewalks for pedestrians, forcing people on foot or in wheelchairs into the street where they could get hit and killed.

PUBLIC TRANSIT: Honestly, WHO designed the public bus routes in the Coachella Valley? They make no sense and just discourage people from taking public transit. For example, why does the main bus route in and out of Palm Springs deviate from Indian Canyon? It should stay on Indian Canyon from Ramon to Tahquitz. And why does it end before getting to Vista Chino? It should continue north on Palm Canyon at least to Racquet Club.

Did I miss something? Add a comment.