Palm Springs has been hellbent on changing Indian Canyon from a nice, free-flowing, one-way street to a slow-moving, two-way clusterfuck for years now. They finally got their way and construction has been underway for a few weeks now – but, hey, what’s this? Oh a huge 10,000 seat arena is now being built downtown. Hmmm. That sounds like it would need roads to and from it that allow loads of cars to easily drive to and from concerts, hockey games, and other events that will be happening in downtown Palm Springs.
Seriously tho, folks. Has the city had a conversation about this since the big arena announcement? Now, I am no city council member and I am definitely not an overly-paid city manager, but this seems like something that, oh I don’t know, should be discussed AS SOON AS POSSIBLE – in order to avoid having to redo the whole thing in two years when the arena is planned to open.
And who knows, maybe the city has indeed properly planned for this type of thing and the new layout of Indian Canyon is going to be perfect for getting thousands of cars easily into and out of Palm Springs.
But would you bet on that?
Many municipalities change traffic patterns during sporting events and so can we, easy-peasy, you can have one-way traffic on Indian Canyon and then go back to two-way when the show’s over. Plus this will give the incessant complainers new material to work with, since whining about the noise from Splash House has gotten tired.
But no, Indian Canyon has to become a two-way street and the reasons aren’t despite the Tribe but because of them, at least partly: Plain and simple, the new cultural center deserves a decent front door, and right now Indian Canyon is throughway to get outta town. We got too much good stuff around here just to drive past it all, it’s the same reason the city consulted with Marmol Radziner about rehabilitating the Town & Country—Palm Springs’ downtown has grown too much to have one “Main Street”.