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I Was Right About Palm Springs

Did you even wonder if an important decision you made long ago was the right one? I do it all the time! Yet a recent visit provided reinforcement that I was right about Palm Springs.

Right about Palm Springs? What am I even talking about? (or, what kind of first world problem is this?)

Blogger in Palm Springs 3/21/22

Here goes: I made a decision to sell a condominium I owned (and lived in) out there in the desert in 2011 basically so that I could retire early and fund the gap between then and the time I’d be able to collect Social Security.

Great Recession

It was the end of the Great Recession awfulness and job prospects were dim, especially when you were 55, as I was that year (2010). I’d gotten laid off and I didn’t want another corporate-type job anyway, and when I weighed options on how to support myself, using this asset seemed to make the most sense.

Also, I had determined I was an urban person, not a suburban or small town guy. I wanted to go back to the big city for those social and cultural benefits.

This was the living room at my condo there.

Through the ensuing years I was happy about that part, but did miss the condominium itself — the space, the design, the patios, the complex with the pool and especially the Jacuzzi.

And that Jacuzzi is on the left here.

Missing the Desert

I also missed my friends out there. Turns out, after all was said and done is that it’s hard to make new friends, it’s hard to renew friendships that have lapsed, and I think all of this gets harder as one gets older.

All that made me wonder if I’d made the wrong decision back in 2010-2011. In the 10 years that have passed Palm Springs has become unaffordable to me, and in Los Angeles I’m locked into a rent controlled apartment. On the one hand, that’s good, because the rent is below market. Then you realize you can’t move anywhere else in town because everything is so expensive.

So I’ve joined the ranks of friends and relatives in cities like San Francisco and New York who’ve lived in the same rental apartments for 40, 50 years. And now I understand why.

I Was Right About Palm Springs

So back to Palm Springs. I recently went out there for a couple of days, for some R & R. The weather was great, very warm but not too hot, dry, and I was reminded of what I’d loved there — the stillness. That wonderful aroma of dry. The general ease of doing things.

Love the quiet up on the mountain.

But I also remembered the unease. The claustrophobia I felt living there was back right away as soon as I drove into town. The suburban ethos of the civic design — which means you need a car for basically everything. The smallness of the place itself — which I could see in total from a perch on Mt. San Jacinto during a hike.

So it turns out I was right about Palm Springs. It was not the right place. For me, anyway.

Here’s Eve Babitz, from her story “Bad Day at Palm Springs” in the book Slow Days, Fast Company:

“The peace that some claim to find in all that sand will never happen to me in Palm Springs, no matter how I hope for flat dry hot air so bloodless that I won’t even have to breathe or think.”


 

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Top Ten Things I Miss About Living in Palm Springs

124115163_fc436ccd4d_mWell, it’s Spring, and a young man’s fancy turns to . . . hot desert nights. Not that I’m, um, young or particularly fancy, but you know. . . This time of year it’s the height of the spring season out there, with the White Party and Spring Break and all the other stuff about to climax before the beastly summer heat settles in.

So I’ve been thinking about the desert recently and the things I miss. Here are ten, in no particular order:

  1. The Hot Summer Nights. Seriously. As in seriously hot. I loved not ever having to worry about taking a sweater along (unless it was to a movie, then you needed one because they crank the AC up so much) cause you know the temperature isn’t going to go down lower than 86-88. And that’s at the “coldest” point just before dawn. And of course, perfect weather for walking around without a stitch on.
  2. Koffi. I’m writing this blog right now in a coffeehouse in Studio City, also a great place, but there’s nothing quite like Koffi for atmosphere–not to mention the two fab locations, downtown and the south end. Different vibes and both very suited to writing. I’ve always found a spot to open up the laptop at either place. I also got a lot of writing done at (believe it or not) Starbucks at Sunny Dunes.
  3. The Blessed Stillness. Is there another place on earth where it’s more blissfully quiet to sleep? Or is the quiet of a place like Palm Springs just the way it is if you don’t live in a huge noisy city? Whatever it is, I found it particularly conducive to a good night’s sleep. Those inky black nights.
  4. The Camelot — movie house. Where they play unusual and art films in the middle of a low-population desert. I love that they continue to do this kind of programming there, even in the summer, when the houses are practically empty. It’s got to be losing money at that time of the year, so clearly it’s a labor of love. (This may be the real #1 on my list.)

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  5. The Farmer’s Market (actually it’s right outside The Camelot)– Small enough to be manageable and the farmers were local, so that was really enjoyable to get to know where your food was grown (on the mountain behind you!). Only drawback to this Farmer Market is that it closes in the summer. Guess it gets too hot to grow anything!
  6. Fresh & Easy — There’s lots of opinions about this store but it always worked for me. From their already cut up and washed fruit and veggies to the ready-to-eat entrees, and, of course, they had the bargain aisle where they’d sell totally good food a day past the expiration for basically peanuts. I hear since the chain itself went under, this location may have new owners. . .
  7. Eddy’s Frozen Yogurt– Eddy has great froyo and toppings — if you’re in a healthy mood, there’s the fresh fruit, if not, there’s the chocolate and peanut butter cups and all the other bad sugary things. But the best part really is sitting and enjoying your frozen treat watching the comings and goings of the nearly naked men at Hunter’s next door. A favorite summer night excursion, for sure.
  8. World Gym Palm Springs–at the corner of Sunrise and Vista Chino–one of the best gyms I’ve ever been member of. They have miles of equipment, it seems, and it never appears crowded there. Great friendly staff and instructors — I liked that exercise and yoga classes were included with the membership. Come here to find out what’s going on in Palm Springs. I found this an easy place to go to get fit – easy because it was so pleasant and non-stressful.
  9. Mount San Jacinto–ah, the mountain. Avid hiker that I am, I loved going up the tram, especially during the horrendously hot summer days, and spending the day up on top of the mountain hiking in the magnificent forests that are up there. The last time I was there during the summer I got a pass for $60 – a great value if you plan on going up on the mountain even just a few times during the summer months.
  10. Where Everybody Knows Your Name — which seems to be every restaurant, every bar, every store. I guess I liked this aspect of small town living — that when you go out, half the people in any one establishment are people you know. I thought that was a lot of fun. Not like that at all in the big city, where anonymity seems to rule. Sometimes that’s nice, sometimes it’s just sad.

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