17th Annual Palm Springs International ShortFest

The City of Palm Springs gets ready for the 17th Annual Palm Springs International ShortFest. This film market and festival is the largest of its kind and is currently the biggest film festival for short films in the United States.

An entire week has been devoted to films, workshops, presentations, events and seminars. This year over three hundred short films from forty different countries around the world will be showcased. All films will be presented at the Camelot Theatre of Palm Springs. Informative workshop, sensational seminars, and so much more will be held at the Renaissance Hotel.

The Palm Springs International ShortFest, presented by the Palm Springs International Film Society, runs June 21st through the 27th. Tickets can be purchased at the Camelot Theatre starting June 14th. For more information or to order tickets online, visit the Palm Spring International Film Society.

Planning Commission to Reject Fashion Plaza Agreement

The Palm Springs Planning Commission is scheduled to meet at 1:30 pm, Wednesday, June 8, 2011, at Palm Springs City Hall, 3200 E. Tahquitz Way.

The Planning Commission is expected to approve a resolution recommending the City Council reject a proposed development agreement between the city and Wessman Development regarding the Desert Fashion Plaza revitalization project.

For information, please contact the City of Palm Springs at (760) 323-8299.

Palm Springs VillageFest

This year marks the 20th anniversary of VillageFest, Palm Springs’ weekly festival along beautiful Palm Canyon Drive. Every week this event attracts hundreds of people to the heart of downtown Palm Springs. Each block offers great street entertainment with over 200 booths set up to showcase beautiful art, unique handcrafted items, and delicious food. Visitors can listen to live music, peruse fresh produce at the farmer’s market, or enjoy the variety of shops, galleries, and restaurants the city has to offer. Many merchants even stay open later to accommodate the crowds of people that flock downtown every week to this fun-filled street fair.

There is truly something for everyone each week at VillageFest. The assortment of activities and entertainment opportunities appeals to both city residents and tourists. Additionally, attendees find the atmosphere of the event to be welcoming to all family members. Children are thrilled to see homemade toys and candy for sale. The family dog is even welcome, and many vendors sell toys, treats, or accessories for man’s best friend.

VillageFest is a year-round event and takes place on Thursday evenings in Palm Springs. It operates from 6:00 pm to 10:00 pm during the months of October to May and from 7:00 pm to 10:00 pm during the months of June to September. As the sun sets, Palm Canyon Drive becomes car-free. Pedestrians can browse the vendors and enjoy the activities that line the streets from Baristo Road to Amado Road. There is plenty of parking available surrounding the downtown area, and admission to the event is always free.

If you haven’t experienced Village Fest, now is your chance. It is a great way to enjoy the Palm Springs community.

Indian Wells City Information

Indian Wells is a city in Riverside County, California, in the Coachella Valley (Palm Springs area), in between Palm Desert and La Quinta. As of the 2000 census, the city population was 3,816.

The city hosts the Indian Wells Masters—now known by its current sponsorship name of BNP Paribas Open — one of the nine tournaments in the Masters 1000 of high-level events operated by the Association of Tennis Professionals. The event is held in the 16,100-seat stadium of the Indian Wells Tennis Garden.

As of the census of 2000, there were 3,816 people, 1,982 households, and 1,323 families residing in the city. The population density was 288.5 people per square mile (111.4/km²). There were 3,843 housing units at an average density of 290.5 per square mile (112.2/km²). The racial makeup of the city was 96.3% White, 1.5% Asian, 0.4% Black or African American, 0.2% Native American, 0.1% Pacific Islander, 0.5% from other races, and 1.0% from two or more races. 3.0% of the population were Hispanic or Latino of any race.

There were 1,982 households out of which 8.4% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 63.1% were married couples living together, 3.0% had a female householder with no husband present, and 33.2% were non-families. 28.4% of all households were made up of individuals and 17.6% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 1.9 and the average family size was 2.3.

The age distribution is 7.6% under the age of 18, 1.5% from 18 to 24, 9.4% from 25 to 44, 35.3% from 45 to 64, and 46.2% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 63 years. For every 100 females there were 89.5 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 89.3 males.

The median income for a household in the city was $93,986, and the median income for a family was $119,110. Males had a median income of $88,709 versus $49,539 for females. The per capita income for the city was $76,187. About 1.2% of families and 3.4% of the population were below the poverty line, including none of those under age 18 and 2.6% of those age 65 or over.

According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 13.4 square miles (34.7 km²), of which, 13.2 square miles (34.3 km²) of it is land and 0.2 square miles (0.4 km²) of it (1.19%) is water.

Indian Wells, located on the western slopes of the Coachella Valley, is sheltered by the San Bernardino Mountains to the north, the Santa Rosa Mountains to the south, by the San Jacinto Mountains to the west and by the Little San Bernardino Mountains to the east. The surrounding geography gives Indian Wells its hot, dry climate, with 354 days of sunshine and less than 6 inches (150 mm) of rain annually. Winter temperatures average in the 70s with nights in the mid 40s, but the dry desert heat of summer pushes daytime temperatures well above 100, with overnight temperatures in the mid-to-upper 70s.

City information courtesy of Wikepedia, The Free Encyclopedia.

External Links

• City of Indian Wells Official Website
• Indian Wells Tennis Garden Website
• The Desert Sun, Coachella Valley Newspaper

Palm Desert City Information

Palm Desert is a city in Riverside County, California, United States, in the Coachella Valley, approximately 11 miles (18 km) east of Palm Springs. The population was 41,155 at the 2000 census. The city was one of the state’s fastest growing in the 1980s and 1990s, beginning with 11,801 residents in 1980, doubling to 23,650 in 1990, 35,000 in 1995, and nearly double its 1990 population by 2000. As of the United States Census Bureau estimate 2006 the city population was 47,047.

A major center of growth in the Palm Springs area, Palm Desert is a popular retreat for “snowbirds” from colder climates (the Eastern and Northern US, and Canada), who swell its population by an estimated 31,000 each winter. In the past couple of years Palm Desert has seen more residents become “full-timers”, mainly from the coasts and urban centers of California, who have come for affordable but high-valued home prices. According to a 2001 Forbes Magazine report, Palm Desert is in the listing of the state’s 50 and nation’s 100 wealthiest communities.

The area was first known as the Old MacDonald Ranch, but the name changed to Palm Village in the 1920s when date palms were planted. Local historians said the main residents of pre-1950 Palm Desert were Cahuilla Indian farmers of the now extinct San Cayetano tribe, but a few members of the Montoya family of Cahuilla/Spanish descent were prominent leaders in civic life.

Palm Desert once served as a training ground for General George Patton’s Third Army troops and tank battalions. After World War II, Cliff Henderson, a Los Angeles developer, began to develop the desert into his dream community.

The first residential development occurred in 1943 in connection with an Army maintenance camp in the area. That site was later developed into “El Paseo“, an upscale shopping district not unlike Rodeo Drive. In 1948, the Palm Desert Corporation began to develop real estate, and in 1951 the area was given its present name.

Many celebrities keep homes in Palm Desert, including Rita Rudner and more recently, the current home of teenage pro golfer Michelle Wie and one of the homes of Bill Gates. Film producers Jerry Weintraub and Robert Velo call Palm Desert their second home. With only 1,500 permanent residents, the community was incorporated on November 26, 1973. At the time, Palm Desert was a master planned community situated in the desert that used to stretch from Palm Springs to Indio.

The city’s first golf course and tennis club was Shadow Mountain in 1952, followed by Marrakesh in 1954, the Palm Desert Greens mobile home park golf course in 1961, and the Palm Desert Country Club in 1962. The latter, located five miles (8 km) east of the original city, was formally annexed in 1992, but is no longer in operation as of July 2010 and is in Chapter 7 bankruptcy. The total number of golf clubs (more than 30 located within 10 miles from the city) have made Palm Desert known as the “World’s Golf Capital”.

“Desert Willow Golf Resort” is the City Of Palm Desert’s municipal golf course and has 2 championiship courses – ‘Mountain View’ and ‘Firecliff’. It is associated with the “Hilton Hotels Desert Willow Resort” development at the golf course location. The Firecliff course is listed at #13 in Golf Magazine’s ‘Best Courses you can Play’ 2010 list for California.

In the late-1970s and 1980s, a spate of private golf clubs, destination resorts and hotels appeared in the northern half of Palm Desert, such as the four-star JW Marriott Desert Springs Golf Resort and Spa in 1987 and the four-star Hilton Desert Willow Golf Resort in 2002. The city has over 30 motels and 5,000 motel rooms, since lodging and hospitality is a major portion of the local tourist-based economy.

Rapid growth and several annexations in the 1980s and 1990s have made Palm Desert a major shopping destination and the main center of business activity in the Coachella Valley. The city developed a major shopping area when the Palm Desert Town Center (now the Westfield Shopping Center) opened in 1983, followed by the arrival of Target in Desert Crossing in 1995.

El Paseo Drive is downtown Palm Desert’s main shopping street. The area around the street has evolved into an upscale shopping district featuring 150 boutiques, art galleries, and restaurants. El Paseo is often compared to Beverly Hills’ Rodeo Drive due its concentration of posh retail outlets and lush landscaping. The street runs parallel to State Route 111, which serves as the main thoroughfare in the Palm Springs metropolitan area.

Although Indio is the most populous city in the region with 75,000 residents and is the home of the majority of Palm Desert’s daily and seasonal employees, local residents have shown concern in protecting the desert environment by promoting natural landscaping and artistic sculptures.Fred Waring Drive has been expanded into a four-lane major traffic fare, encouraging new retail centers and commercial zones. The desert sprawl nearly engulfs the Coachella Valley from State Route 111 to Interstate 10.

City information courtesy of Wikepedia, The Free Encyclopedia.

Rancho Mirage City Information

Rancho Mirage is a resort city in Riverside County, California. The population was 13,249 at the 2000 census, but the seasonal (part-time) population can exceed 20,000. In between Cathedral City and Palm Desert, it is one of the eight cities of the Coachella Valley (Palm Springs area). Rancho Mirage was incorporated in 1973 from a merger of Mirage Cove with five unincorporated areas known as the “Cove communities” (Desert, Magnesia, Palmas, Tamarisk and Thunderbird), but had 3,000 permanent residents at the time.

Although the first modern settlements date back to the 1920s and 1930s, Rancho Mirage got its claim to fame after World War II. The Annenberg Estate or Sunnylands, owned by philanthropists Walter and Leonore Annenberg, had long been popular with the wealthy and powerful, including Frank Sinatra, Bob Hope, Fred Astaire, Ginger Rogers, Queen Elizabeth II, and Mary Martin. Several United States Presidents have vacationed at the Annenberg estate, including Richard Nixon, Ronald Reagan, and Gerald Ford. Ford later bought a house in Rancho Mirage and was living there at the time of his death in 2006. The Betty Ford Center, a world-renowned addiction rehabilitation center, is located in Rancho Mirage at the Eisenhower Medical Center.

Rancho Mirage boasts twelve golf courses, also known as country clubs. The city’s first golf resort was the Thunderbird Guest Ranch, opened in 1946 for entertainers and business clientele. Other golf resorts are the Tamarisk, Mission Hills, the Springs, Sunrise, KSL Resorts’ Rancho Las Palmas hotel (opened in 1979 to replace the Desert Air golf and private airport from 1954–1978), Rancho Mirage, Morningside, Mission Hills North Course, Westin Hotels Mission Hills resort, and Tuscaniaa by Sunrise Company opened in 2006.

The Agua Caliente Band of Cahuilla Indians of Palm Springs runs the Agua Caliente Casino on the intersection of Bob Hope Drive and Ramon Road off Interstate 10, opened in 2002. The thriving casino is a popular destination for locals, tourists, and gambling enthusiasts. In 2008 the tribal board completed the expansion of the Agua Caliente resort, which includes a 12-story hotel and spa, as well as remodelling the casino and expanding the parking structures. A state-of-the-art theater for top name entertainers will open in the spring of 2009. Though the Agua Caliente Resort and Casino was just outside the border of Rancho Mirage in an unincorporated area, the City of Rancho Mirage included the property as part of the city in an agreement with the tribe so they would have access to police and firefighting services.

Rancho Mirage has expanded its economy from one relegated to seasonal, resort-based and low-paying, to include more light industry and commerce by I-10 and the Union Pacific Railroad, high-end retail centers like the River shopping complex, opened in 2005 and built around an artificial lake that resembles a castle’s moat.

City information courtesy of Wikepedia, The Free Encyclopedia.

Palm Springs City Information

Palm Springs is a desert city in Riverside County, California, within the Coachella Valley. It is located approximately 37 miles east of San Bernardino, 111 miles (177 km) east of Los Angeles and 136 miles (225 km) northeast of San Diego. As of the United States Census Bureau estimate 2006 the city population was 42,529. Golf, swimming, tennis, horseback riding and hiking in the nearby desert and mountain areas are major forms of recreation in Palm Springs. The area code for Palm Springs is 760. The ZIP codes for Palm Springs are 92262 through 92264.

The city became a fashionable resort in the 1900s when health tourists arrived with conditions that needed dry heat. In the 1920′s Hollywood movie stars were attracted by the hot dry, sunny weather and seclusion. Architectural modernists flourished with commissions from the stars, using the city to explore architectural innovations, new artistic venues, and an exotic back-to-the-land experiences. Inventive architects designed unique vacation houses, such as steel houses with prefabricated panels and folding roofs, a glass-and-steel house in a boulder-strewn landscape, and a carousel house that turned to avoid the sun’s glare.

Palm Springs is noted for its mid-century modern architecture, a tradition that grew out of the aesthetics of the German Bauhaus and is reflected in the work of Albert Frey (who designed the Palm Springs city hall, aerial-tram (cable car) station, Movie Colony Hotel and airport), Donald Wexler, Richard Neutra, E. Stewart Williams, John Lautner, and others. A home developer, Alexander Homes, popularized this post-and-beam architectural style in the Coachella Valley. Alexander houses and similar homes feature low-pitched roofs, wide eaves, open-beamed ceilings, and floor-to-ceiling windows. Restoration projects are now being undertaken to return these homes and businesses to their original condition.

In 1946 Richard Neutra designed the Edgar and Liliane Kaufmann House. A modernist classic, this mostly glass residence incorporated the latest technological advances in building materials, using natural lighting and floating planes and flowing space for proportion and detail. In recent years an energetic preservation program has protected an enhanced many classic buildings.

Culver (2010) argues that Palm Springs architecture became the model for mass-produced suburban housing, especially in the Southwest. This “Desert Modern” style was a high-end architectural style featuring open-design plans, wall-to-wall carpeting, air-conditioning, swimming pools, and very large windows. As Culver concludes, “While environmentalists might condemn desert modern, the masses would not. Here, it seemed, were houses that fully merged inside and outside, providing spaces for that essential component of Californian–and indeed middle-class American–life: leisure. While not everyone could have a Neutra masterpiece, many families could adopt aspects of Palm Springs modern.”

As the 1970s drew to a close, increasing numbers of retirees moved to the Coachella Valley. As a result, Palm Springs began to evolve from a virtual ghost town in the summer to a year-round community. Businesses and hotels that used to close for the months of July and August instead remained open all summer. As commerce grew, so too did the number of families with children.

Though celebrities still retreat to Palm Springs, many today establish residences in other areas of the Coachella Valley. The city’s economy now relies on tourism, which occurs primarily during the winter months, and casino gambling. It is a city of numerous festivals, conventions, and international events.

The world’s largest rotating aerial tramcars (cable cars) can be found at the Palm Springs Aerial Tramway. These cars ascend two-and-a-half miles up a steep incline to reveal views of the entire Valley. The ascent from the desert floor to an altitude in excess of 8,500 feet (2,600 m) is accompanied by a drop in temperature of 30 degrees Fahrenheit or more, giving riders a cool respite from the heat. A wilderness area can be explored at the top of the tram and there is a restaurant with notable views.

The Palm Springs International Film Festival presents movie star-filled, red-carpet affairs. The Palm Springs Follies stage-show features performers that are over the age of 55. Every Thursday evening downtown Palm Springs is transformed into Village Fest, featuring a diverse display of arts and crafts, a certified farmer’s market, food, and live entertainment on historic Palm Canyon Drive. The Palm Springs Convention Center underwent a multi-million-dollar expansion and remodeling in 2005

The Palm Springs Art Museum presents traveling art exhibitions plus a variety of entertainment in its Annenberg Theater. The Agua Caliente Band of Cahuilla Indians is located downtown with the Spa Resort Hotel and Casino. There are other casinos in the Coachella Valley as well, notably in the cities of Rancho Mirage, Indio, Coachella and Cabazon. Numerous five star hotels, restaurants and attractions cater to tourists, while shoppers can find high-end boutiques in downtown and uptown Palm Springs. There is a water park and several skateboard parks.

City information courtesy of Wikepedia, The Free Encyclopedia.