Fleeing the bicyclists versus suburban motorists war in San Francisco, we flew to Palm Springs for some peace and quiet.
There are ten units in The Four Seasons, a pretty little complex one block away from the San Jacinto Mountains, where my partner Tony (above) bought a one-bedroom condo last summer. The place is pretty evenly divided between those who rent out their places to visitors and those who live in their apartments year-round.
The vast majority of people living here and staying as guests are charming and the communal living arrangement seems to work well, except when it doesn't. This winter, a right-wing couple from Southern Oregon rented out one of the units for three months, and have been acting as if they own the entire place. It was when they invited another couple from Oregon to join them for the month of April that tensions finally boiled over, because their friends arrived in a monster honking recreational vehicle which they proceeded to park under the 51 palm trees in the front yard, blocking everyone's view.
"We pay a lot of money to live in a beautiful place with a beautiful view," the association President explained to them, "and we're proud of it. Now please move that hunk of metal somewhere else because we're sick of looking at it." Call me elitist, but it was a proud moment standing in solidarity with my fellow owner, and after threats that "there would be consequences," they moved the ugly heap to the street around the corner. Now, if we could just figure out how to keep self-righteous Redwood City mothers in their SUVs from ever leaving the suburbs, the world would be an even more beautiful place.
amen, brother, my sentiments exactly.
ReplyDeletei rode with that pack of anarchic mirthful street theatre artists often for a three year stretch, and i know that it would take provocation to elicit a rear-window-smashing response.
but oh shucks that you're in palm springs! i was just about to call and check on your weekend plans. i've deposited my child and her father at sfo for a flight to the holy land and i'm scrambling for an excuse to not be available for the family easter gathering, plus some other stuff.
actually palm springs sounds just about right...
mucho x-o,
e
We heard a story about a knifing at the last PS streetfair. I think the vic was black. The perp was described as a 20 year old female white supremacist.
ReplyDeleteThat big old RV seems out of place in the historic tennis district. Maybe a cherry old Airstream, but...
Yes, racial war broke out in the neighborhood Thursday evening with some white trash from nearby Desert Hot Springs, the meth lab capital of the Coachella Valley, attacking a group of blacks from I'm-not-sure-where. It all happened in the parking lot behind the Starbucks on Palm Canyon and Tahquitz, of all places.
ReplyDeleteA bloody knife was found in a white woman's pocket after a black man and woman were stabbed, the woman seriously. It's presumed there were accomplices to the white supremacist babe but no details have been forthcoming and nobody seems to be terribly upset about the situation. If the races of the victims and the attackers had been different, there would probably be a huge uproar, but again, that's just a guess.