“A Youth Serum for Palm Springs,” proclaimed the New York Times in last Sunday’s June 17th edition. They went on to laud the newest hotel and restaurant arrivals in Palm Springs.

With the installation of trendy shops for art, clothing and antiques along with new hip restaurants, Palm Springs rolls out new enticements, especially in the Uptown Design District which has become a lively destination in the last few years. Then last summer, our Downtown welcomed the instantly successful restaurant Lulu to the corner of Palm Canyon and Amado, where the neighboring Zin, not to be outdone, reconfigured to create an inviting outdoor dining terrace, and the Kaiser Grill across the street joined in with its own makeover.

So this past Sunday when the Times pronounced South Palm Springs newly chic with the arrival of  its new hotels and restaurants, it seems we’ve now gotten all our bases covered. The Ace Hotel moved into the former Howard Johnson a couple of years back, bringing a new vibrancy to the South End, and they do seem to keep perennially booked. The Ace offers lots of incentives for guests – a welcome policy for pets, taco parties by the pool, film festival parties and great concierge services. And next door, Koffi – long an institution in North Palm Springs, opened their second location, in a sparkling white building where they serve up the same great coffees and paninis. But that’s not all. The developers of the Ace Hotel cast their eyes on the drab green-painted Holiday Inn at the corner of Palm Canyon and Sunrise Way, a few blocks down. Now they’ve transformed it into a hip and vividly colored hotel that’s all the buzz and christened it The Saguaro. The Times called the Ace our “first hipster nightlife hub” and now the Ace’s creators have given us a second “hipster hub” with their opening of The Saguaro.

The Times goes on to list some little jewels of shops like Mr Cox, for vintage clothing, and also recommends our very newly opened restaurant, Jiao on N. Palm Canyon Drive in a corner of the Corridor Shops. The owners of Jiao had already opened their wildly popular Cheeky’s, and then Birba, just a few blocks up. In the new Jiao, they serve up their own twist on Asian fare, with the experience enhanced by their art installations and musical entertainment. It’s on my list!

Palm Springs once again has transformed herself into a chic weekend retreat, and for those of us who live here year round, it’s all good! See A Youth Serum for Palm Springs for details.

It’s tremendously exciting for our community that Palm Springs and College of the Desert are collaborating on the development of the new College of the Desert West Valley campus here in Palm Springs. Back in 2004, voters approved Measure B, a bond issue of $346 million, which includes a mandate for development of an east and west Valley campus. Then in 2007, Palm Springs was chosen as the location for the West Valley Campus. In 2010, a tract of 119 acres in north Palm Springs, located on the northwest corner of Indian Canyon Drive at Tramview Road, was acquired by Palm Springs from the Bureau of Land Management and transferred to the College of the Desert.

Construction has now begun for Phase 1 which includes the infrastructure for the entire site. Already some classes for this campus’ curriculum are being held here in rented space. The construction of Phase 1 will bring hundreds of new jobs to Palm Springs, as will the campus itself when it opens at the Phase 1 completion in 2014. In addition, new support services will undoubtedly develop around the campus, and more will come as the remaining three phases are developed. Along with new jobs, the new campus will bring a young demographic, injecting new vitality into the greater Palm Springs area.

West Valley Campus of College of the Desert
The West Valley Campus curriculum will focus on four main disciplines – Hospitality and Tourism, Media and the Arts, Allied Health, and Sustainability Technology. Roughly half of the acreage will be devoted to a GreenPark for sustainable energy-generating systems. The campus is being constructed utilizing green technology to the extent that it will be totally self-sustaining from its inception and will even generate energy surpluses to sell back into the grid. Sustainability needs for our desert environment will only become more important as we move into the future. It’s the aim of Palm Springs leadership to develop a green economy and to attract clean technology companies to our city. The collaboration between the City of Palm Springs and the West Valley Campus of College of the Desert will be a powerful catalyst for future development here in Palm Springs.