Palm Springs City Council's approach to homelessness isn't working
Driving west on Palm Canyon Drive at Gene Autry Trail, there is a stunning visual reminder of the success of the Palm Springs City Council’s version of social justice for the homeless. Looking at a mountainous backdrop featuring Bob Hope’s house, we are reminded of his good deeds, the modernist spirit that drives Modernism Week and the gift of tourism bestowed on Palm Springs.
Oops. As your eyes drop, you see the desert debris collected by the heroic homeless who have taken a simple piece of infrastructure, a short bridge into an inevitable shopping center, and made it grotesque. To speak against this travesty makes the speaker cold-hearted and failing to understand that the builders of this grotesque sculpture are among the most valued souls in the minds of the Palm Springs City Council.
An internationally recognized and much-loved tourist destination of unusual beauty has had years of progressive leadership deciding that the unhoused must have free reign to dump garbage in public places.
“Progress” is where “progressive” begins but ends in Palm Springs.
Regressive and cheering on ugly with not even a rational attempt to send a broad signal across city, county and state lines to say, “Sorry for your plight. We pay some of the highest taxes in the United States. Maybe the better people in Sacramento could help figure this out instead of hating those who speak of this mess. Maybe the people who are better than we are in Washington, D.C. could help figure this out.”
Not a chance.
The ugliness in some of the bus shelters in Palm Springs, that are carefully designed to protect those relying on public transportation from our weather, now look like dumpsters. I get the brainy joke of conceptual art. The physical remnants of a consumer society collected and displayed may be in a museum to be explained by a docent. That earns a wink and a nod. Accepting it piled up on vacant lots, or on the little bridge hundreds of feet below the iconic Hope Residence is not based on being liberal or voting for high taxes or accepting those constructing filth as shelter as victims. It is reckless.
Real kindness for the homeless population might come with clean encampments, free of debris, patrolled to prevent crime; incarceration of criminals and refusal to accept the violence and disease of the progressive, twisted sociology that glorifies victimhood. The tourism developments, that for years, the Palm Springs City Council has sublimated to whatever counts as social justice does not work.
Drive around a little or find an unoccupied bus shelter and hop aboard a SunBus to enjoy the visual wonder of our desert. But don’t turn away from the mess of the homeless encampments in Palm Springs. While you’re at it, gaze at the architectural history and wonder of Bob Hope’s house. Then lower your eyes. Ask the city council, “How is that ugliness social justice or kindness in a city built on tourism?”
David Bryant has been a public and not-for-profit administrator for 47 years. He has been represented by 10 art galleries nationwide. He splits his time between Palm Desert and Connecticut. His email is dave7desert@gmail.com.
This article originally appeared on Palm Springs Desert Sun: Palm Springs City Council's approach to homelessness isn't working
