DL, can anyone tell me about living or visiting Rancho Mirage, La Quinta, Indian Wells or Palm Desert

Hot. Expensive. White.

Rancho Miriage and the others are basically the Beverly Hills of Palm Springs. Very hetero, nice homes, nothing to do. Too damn hot.

I live about 45 minutes away. I think other than Palm Desert all of those places are very expensive and really nice if you want to live and play on a golf course. In my humble opinion, all of the nightlife and cultural events take place in Palm Springs. The sporting events happen in the other communities. Palm Springs took a dive in the late 90s and 2000s. It has become much more fun in the last several years.

There really is absolutely nothing to do unless you like to golf. There's hiking for the ambitious. Watch out for snakes. Or there's a pool to swim in. But once the weather gets hot, you just cannot be out doors. And there is literally nothing to do. From June to October it is awful. Uninhabitable. Personally I have discovered that I can't bear the heat once the temps rise above 88. And there's no shade out there in the desert. The business districts are puny, and there are strip malls with third rate, over priced supermarkets.

I lived in Rancho Mirage from 2004-2016, hot as hell. I was uncomfortable from April through October. I loved the smallness of the desert and the ability to get around. I loved my house there, and really miss it, but could never live there again. The desert landscape is beautiful, but I'm so much happier back in the PNW. The desert is really only suitable for part time living.

I assume you need a car? is there public transportation?

Husband and I are going to retire there, and we’ve found the condos affordable.

And LA and San Diego aren’t far away.

The greater Rancho Mirage area used to produce some of the finest theater east of Broadway! I haven't been in years but it seemed to be a place where Hollywood stars could go and "hone their craft". I remember seeing a world class performance of My Fair Lady with Mr. Belevedere's Christopher Hewitt and Major Dad's Shana Reed (Stepfanie Kramer replaced Reed). I also saw Ted Lange do one of the finest Stanley Kowalski's I've ever seen to Bern Nadette Stanis' less inspired Blanche in Streetcar.

And don’t forget film…Palm Springs Weekend!

[quote]I assume you need a car? is there public transportation?

ZERO, ZIP, NADA. You need a car in good working condition or you will die in the sun when it breaks down before 911 can get to you.

What exactly have you heard about Palm Springs that would make you not want to live there? PS and Rancho Mirage are likely the two most livable places in terms of nice neighborhoods and homes.

Palm Desert, LaQuinta and Indian Wells are MAGA central. Yes, the Kuntrashians have a house in LaQuinta, and so do a few other nouveau riche types, but for the most part, it's very old and conservative. It's also right next to Indio, which is very young, conservative and Hispanic.

Palm Springs is very gay, and it slowly gets less gay as you make your way east, through Cathedral City, Rancho Mirage, Palm Desert and so on.

PS is really the only source of any cultural substance. Everywhere else in the area is a void. A pretty void, but a void nonetheless. It's meant to be a home for 7-8 months of the year at most.

ps -

Rancho Mirage is also very Republican as well, but there's enough of a mix of some gay people that it's not intolerable. It tends to be a little more Country Club Republican, so to speak, whereas Palm Desert is just a bunch of old, sour cunts, the kind that complain all the time on NextDoor about The Homosexuals and how Pepe won't come work in their gardens for 5 hours for only 20 bucks, how very rude!

two acquaintances, a gay couple, live in Rancho Mirage so I was curious about the area... they said other gay couples also live in the area, so I was wondering

I happen to like New York!

I found the Gay community in PS, very clique -ish. You'd have more fun in the Hamptons and that's not saying much.

Gay communities everywhere are cliqueish. Most mature gay men act like high school basic bitches.

Yep, pretty much every gay community is clickish, especially the ones that are in nicer neighborhoods. But then so are the straight people in the same kind of neighborhoods.

We had a vacation place in Rancho Mirage for 10 years and only sold it because we spent more time traveling in the winter than hanging in RM. It’s nice, quiet, and ridiculously hot half the year and sometimes a bit chilly in the winter. But if you like to relax, it’s great. We’re too old to party every night, so PS was close enough if you wanted to go out w/o being in the middle of everything.

[quote]Hot. Expensive. White.

Just like my last rentboy.

Great for a second home only. The gays in PS seem to have a good time. Older of course. The occasional boy toy. Plenty of hookers and masseurs for a little afternoon delight before slipping on your cocktail caftan and heading out to the pool.

There is no public transportation in the area, as is typical for most of Southern California.

R21 There is, but it's very limited. Nothing comprehensive, just enough so that Pepe and Consuela can get near the houses they clean and garden for during the week.

Rancho Mirage was founded on the basis of antisemitism as golf clubs and resorts in PS would not admit Jews. Walter Annenberg (of [italic]TV Guide[/italic] fame) bought thousands of acres and built his Sunnylands home, and fortune and people (mostly Jews, but not so much anymore) followed. Back when the country was run for the benefit of the people rather than corporations (with a 92% marginal tax rate), rich people donated their money to build things like hospitals, libraries and schools, of which RM was a major beneficiary. It's entertaining to see the photos of famous old people lining the halls of the Eisenhower Health system. And the street names! Bob Hope, Dinah Shore, Frank Sinatra... even a Monty Hall drive (although I think that's in Cathedral City, the slum nextdoor).

I don't get the complaining about the heat in Summer. Yes, it's hot. But compare it to living in the northeast where you are unable to go outside from November through May without bundling up, shovelling snow for hours, and dealing with people who can't drive in rain let alone through a nor'easter. As I tell my friends and relatives, you don't have to shovel sunshine.

Happy 50th birthday to Rancho Mirage!

Such an old city!

The area is a lovely place to vacation. If you're here for a week, two weeks, a month, especially when the rest of the country is bitterly cold and buried under snow, it seems like utopia, heaven on earth.

The practicalities of living day to day, year round, in the Coachella Valley can be quite different.

There are huge fluctuations in the numbers of people who live in the area - sometimes around 150K, sometimes closer to a million with all the temporary visitors and seasonal residents.

The Coachella Valley has a severe shortage of doctors. If you're in a car accident or shot, you'll be OK. Same with having a heart attack or stroke. But if you need assistance with other specialties, you can wait a year or more to see a doctor. Some specialties simply don't exist in the area, and you'd need to see a doctor closer to LA or San Diego.

Same with vets. If Fluffy or Fido need a veterinarian, you may have a hard time finding one.

There's also a huge shortage of capable, reliable tradespeople (as is the case with much of the country). A homeowner might be able to find a gardener who can accomplish the basics of using a leafblower in your yard, and if you have a pool, a pool care company that will make it so your skin doesn't burn off when you get in the pool.

If you buy a home and wonder "why is this so dated? Why didn't anyone renovate?" It's because you cannot for love, money or a spare organ find anyone capable and diligent enough to do the work. (See previous paragraph.) Anyone who IS capable is working for one of the many resorts.

There is a huge dearth of anything resembling culture. Sure, there's the PS museum, a few places like the McCallum and the Purple Room, a few theaters. But beyond that - no 4 year universities, no cultural scene other than "oh! look at that hideous Marilyn statue! Why, now I've seen everything!" Outside of Palm Springs and a bit of Rancho Mirage, everything is filled with chain stores and chain restaurants. It could be Anytown USA in Anystate. Just with cacti and palm trees.

great post r25!

R23 is a great post, too. I hadn't thought about the history of RM but interesting to learn. Ironic that RM was a haven from antisemitism but it sure is a place for old racists that don't particularly like black or brown people.....

And Eisenhower hospital is, in fact, The House That Old Jews Built. Every building has a name that's like a paragraph long. The Hyman and Esther Yetta Rosenshitz Pavilion for Heart Care and Colon Health. And so on.

r21 has never been to Southern California.

Fucker, I live in Riverside. Anybody who tells you there is public transportation widely available in this area is high.

It's not like there is NO transportation but it's very, very limited. California is for cars.

I'd hardly call this "limited."

After having visited the area many times (just for weekend getaways) and always enjoying it, I ended up taking a job in Palm Desert and an apartment in Palm Springs. I know many who make the move there are content, but I went out of my mind.

Even though other posters have already mentioned it, the lack of culture - especially if you’re accustomed to big city life - is truly oppressive. But it’s not merely the sparse offerings of theater, bookstores, and the like. My experience there was that few people had any interest in having conversations about anything other than cocktails, shopping, and so on.

Someone above mentioned the proximity of LA and San Diego. Forget it! Depending on where in the LA area you want to go, you’re talking about a minimum five-and-a-half-hour round trip, given typical traffic. In other words, not at all doable as a day trip or an evening out.

Maybe it’s changed since I lived there but the gay scene there (even compared to elsewhere) seemed heavily drug and alcohol dependent. I suppose given that the demographic skews old and the climate skews too hot to move in summer, you wouldn’t expect a lifestyle of biking and so forth. And I disagree with the poster who tried to make the analogy that winter in the Northeast is equally crippling. It simply isn’t true.

Listen, the desert does have its magical side. I would love to go back and visit. If you’re wealthy enough to keep homes in several places and or to be able to travel freely on a whim, moving there might just be nice. But if you’re trapped there for the long hot summer and especially if you’re not someone seduced by strip mall culture, beware.

[quote] My experience there was that few people had any interest in having conversations about anything other than cocktails, shopping, and so on.

[quote] if you’re not someone seduced by strip mall culture, beware.

Yes and yes.

It's definitely a whole lot of cocktail Marys chasing cock, and their bleached out, leather skinned hag lady friends who live to party, be drunk, and drown in nostalgia for the old days.

The hue and cry that came up from the Marys and Hagarellas when someone suggested taking the Marilyn statue down could have deafened people in NYC. For them, tacky desert shirts and chipped, dented statues of some poor dead woman are the height of culture, art and aesthetics.

😆 r33

R31 I have no idea how you think a Metro map showing all the way due east to Montclair is helpful in the slightest to someone in the desert or even the Inland Empire. I’ve lived here over 30 years and unless you have a car, you’re going to have a miserable time getting anywhere. Only someone with zero knowledge about SoCal thinks the Metro in LA is effective transportation in this area.

[quote]the analogy that winter in the Northeast is equally crippling. It simply isn’t true.

That would be me (R23). I've lived in the Northeast (Boston) and the Intermountain West, both locales that are known for their winter storms. I've lived in California for 20 years now, 10 in SoCal, and I cannot fathom how anyone would believe that heat is worse than cold. I've been caught in NE snow storms so bad that I've abandoned my car in a grocery store parking lot and walked home. I've had snow drifts up to the roofline. I've suffered the floods as that snow melts, and laid plywood from my front door to the street because the mud was so thick you'd sink to your ankles the moment you stepped outside. I've spent hours shovelling snow so I could get my car out of my garage, only to get stuck when I get to the first cross street as the plows have shoved a 3 to 6 foot berm on all four sides of the intersection. And I've never been as cold as I was when the power went out for 3 days due to another surprise(!) nor'easter that blew through; thank man-in-sky I had the good sense to refuse to "upgrade" my water heater from gas to electric; at least I could take a hot shower... in the dark because the sun goes down at 2 in the afternoon in Boston in winter.

But, hey, it's not all bad. I hooked up with a guy and went to his place for a couple of hours... when an ice storm hit. I said my goodbyes, walked out to my car, and it was covered in 2 inches of rock hard ice as it was only about 8 degrees out. I worked at getting the door open for a half hour before giving up, walking back and knocking on my hookup's door, when he welcomed me back inside and we went for round 2. The next morning he kindly got dressed and brought out his 100-foot extension cord and hair dryer to help me thaw the door enough to get inside, start the car and let it warm up and melt the ice off the windows, which only took 2 hours and quarter a tank of gas. He made good coffee, though.

Yes, it's hotter than hell from June through September in the Desert. I have never once had to stay home because I couldn't get the car out of the driveway. I have not been forced to cancel plans because a storm was brewing. I have never been stranded somewhere 200+ miles from my home because the airport shut down... for days at a time. I have not paid a yokel $250 to plow my driveway, per storm, in 20 years.

I have never once lifted a shovel of sunshine, tossing it 6 feet to the side.

r35 Please READ R21, which claims that SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA has limited public transportation. Not just the Inland Empire or Riverside County or the Coachella Valley.

R36 all true, though if The Big One earthquake ever hits, and hits in summer, everyone will be stuck AND will fry to death.

I'm one who believes heat is definitely worse than cold. Look at it this way. When it's cold you can wrap up in blankets, you can start a fire for warmth, and hibernate if you must during a bad storm. But if the weather is unbearably hot and you have a power failure WTF are you gonna do. People die because of extreme heat. You need power for air conditioning. And don't even get me started about the need for water.

R37 the statement is true. The Metro of LA doesn’t cover the vast majority of Southern California. San Diego? Temecula? Corona? SoCal is a series of suburban towns with very limited options for intraregion public transportation. There is the Metrolink, which is a train, but that does not extend to Palm Springs and ridership is not great except into downtown LA. I really didn’t intend to opine at length about the transportation system but the OP asked specifically about it. You can’t live well in SoCal without a car. And I intend no offense to anyone disagreeing with me.