The Village of Palm Springs

Over the years of writing this blog, local print publications and through my radio show 'The Palm Springs Savant' I've received thousands of e-mails and messages from people literally all over the world, asking questions about Palm Springs. Everything from vacation advice, tips on restaurants, hotels, tourist attractions, shopping and even questions on how to see celebrity homes. Most often the questions are about how much time to spend in Palm Springs versus other parts of the Coachella Valley. The answer depends on the type of experience one is seeking. Invariably my responses usually include some reference to experiencing "the Village of Palm Springs", which immediately leads to questions about the size of Palm Springs. "Village" is a term we use to refer to part of downtown Palm Springs, along Palm Canyon Drive. 

The photo above depicts a portion of downtown known as "Mercado Plaza", which is within the Village of Palm Springs, but there are multiple blocks along the way. Visually, the City of Palm Springs maintains a "village aesthetic" to downtown through the zoning, sidewalks, types of shops, lamp posts styles and carefully maintained palm trees which line Palm Canyon Drive. The much ballyhooed, highly anticipated and long-overdue Desert Fashion Plaza re-do project is so close we can almost taste it. As I understand it, that renovation will actually further reinforce our intimate village atmosphere. 

Today, Palm Springs boasts an impressive collection of restaurants, home-decor, antiques and interior design shops. When the Desert Fashion Plaza project is completed, our Village will once again be a destination for locals and tourists to linger longer downtown and experience a difference aspect of our fair village. Until then, the Thursday night Village Fests continue to offer a wonderful array of things to do and wares to buy. The Village of Palm Springs is charming and picturesque, and is on the precipice of truly great days to come. Stay tuned....