After spending the last couple of weeks dealing with the fallout of completely fucking up hosting the Ironman triathlon, La Quinta has chosen to pass on having a Desert X installation in the city. What a well run city.
The city council passed as they were concerned about traffic for what sounds like would have been a pretty cool Desert X exhibit, according to the Desert Sun:
The proposal was for two Desert X exhibits at the top of the Cove Feb. 7-17 — a live production three to four nights and a projected image with story to be displayed on the mountains from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. Feb. 9-17 with VIP preview nights starting at 5:30 on Feb. 7 and 8.
To help minimize traffic, Desert X would have provided shuttle service from the former Ralphs shopping center at the northwest corner of Washington Street and Calle Tampico, to the new Cove parking lot at Avenida Bermudas and Calle Tecate.
Desert X would have paid for the shuttle and developed an initial traffic plan but was not prepared to put them into place, leaving that to the city, Community Services Director Chris Escobedo said.
The council also had issue spending $100,000 ($50k for sponsoring Desert X and $50k for traffic control) and rightfully so as the city clearly would never consider spending large amounts of money on bullshit.
“It’s more about the impact than anything else right now, because of the Ironman, in my opinion,” Mayor Linda Evans said during the council meeting “This, quite simply, is just not worth it for me, for our residents based on what we just went through.”
Other council members also chimed in (while the public did not).
“It’s dark up there and I’m trying to figure out how the buses will turn (around),” Mayor Pro Tem Steve Sanchez said during the discussion while probably thinking about asking the potential bus drivers: #DoYouEvenLaQuintaBro?
At this point, it’s honestly a wonder anything at all gets done in La Quinta.