feeling hot, hot, hot
6.08.2004
Palm Springs gives the Sonoran Desert a bad rep.
I was just in Palm Springs for a week. For the most part, it is the ugliest desert I've ever seen. And for the most part, Palm Springs' answer to this ugliness is to waste obscene amounts of water irrigating perfectly manicured lawns and other vegetation that has no business being in the middle of a desert. I saw lawn sprinklers watering at 2 o'clock in the afternoon. This is a sin, where I come from. In Palm Springs it is an everyday occurrence. Apparently in the Palm Springs area of the Sonoran Desert, an area of the desert so dry and hot and ugly that not even cactus will flourish there, there is such an abundance of water that it can be used to water not only lawns, but also streets. The gutters were running one evening while I was there, and I am quite sure it never rained that day.
Palm Springs is not all bad. There are nice shops and good restaurants and a very nice mountain park there. But, by and large, I would not say that it is a good example of a desert city. It is a city in denial. It wants to think of itself as an oasis in the desert. But the oasis is entirely artificially maintained. It's such a contrast to Tucson, which takes advantage of natural desert vegetation instead of suppressing it.
All that said, I still had fun on my vacation. The anywhere-but-here bug bites you once in a while, and when you have free accommodations offered you, it's pretty hard to say no.
