Palm Springs questions (Cathedral City, Rancho Mirage, Country Club: condo, consignment, houses)

[rnlizdc]

I am reading a lot of negative things about the north end of Palm Springs and The Villas. Does anyone have anything positive to say?? I have just purchased a condo there! Also, where is a good place to look for reasonably priced furniture in the area?

[Cerberos]

Wickes' Furniture are on the process of bankruptcy - you can get some furniture up to 90% off

[OCFabriqgal]

What happened to all the consignment stores down hwy 111 towards Rancho Mirage? North end has always had its struggles. A community is what you make it. It's been more diverse out that way but it's what you make of your existence and the efforts you put into your neighbors that count. When things improve in the housing market, everything gets better. People in the OC are just as challenged.

[JohnSoCal]

North Palm Springs is definitely not a very desirable area.

[Jay100]

I don't know all the details but I visited Palm Springs in September ('10), 1st time in 2 years, and as I decided to drive home late one night back to LA, around 12AM, I noticed a an entire block full of "gangsters" in central PS off Ramon Road I think. I had to do a double take just to be sure and then, just decided, I'd better gtfo of their "hood." OMG, I hadn't seen anything like that since the pre injunction days of the early 90's.

[JohnSoCal]

Originally Posted by Jay100

I don't know all the details but I visited Palm Springs in September ('10), 1st time in 2 years, and as I decided to drive home late one night back to LA, around 12AM, I noticed a an entire block full of "gangsters" in central PS off Ramon Road I think. I had to do a double take just to be sure and then, just decided, I'd better gtfo of their "hood." OMG, I hadn't seen anything like that since the pre injunction days of the early 90's.

That is interesting. We live just an hour from Palm Springs and visit there frequently. In fact we just spent 3 days last week at Rancho Mirage. We drive back and forth on Ramon Rd. all the time from downtown Palm Springs to Agua Caliente Casino Resort in Rancho Mirage which is next to I-10 on the corner of Ramon Rd. and Bob Hope Dr. I have never seen any evidence of gangsters. I am not saying you didn't see them but I find it interesting.

[Jay100]

Originally Posted by JohnSoCal

That is interesting. We live just an hour from Palm Springs and visit there frequently. In fact we just spent 3 days last week at Rancho Mirage. We drive back and forth on Ramon Rd. all the time from downtown Palm Springs to Agua Caliente Casino Resort in Rancho Mirage which is next to I-10 on the corner of Ramon Rd. and Bob Hope Dr. I have never seen any evidence of gangsters. I am not saying you didn't see them but I find it interesting.

I was surprised as you are but they are/were there. There's really no agenda on my part and I would not make stuff up.

[JohnSoCal]

Originally Posted by Jay100

I was surprised as you are but they are/were there. There's really no agenda on my part and I would not make stuff up.

I believe you. I was just surprised. Do you remember what part of Ramon Rd. they were at?

[Twinkle Toes]

Hmmm ... I just drove down Ramon Road about 20 minutes ago and I didn't see any gangsters.

[GoodbyeCalifornia]

Well, I can only think of two areas along Ramon Road where one might see the type of activity that has been described. The first would be a short stretch between El Cielo and Paseo Dorotea where there is a collection of "seen better days" houses and such. This is the top end of the Demuth Park neighborhood which has a largely Hispanic population.

The other is technically not in Palm Springs but just across the border in Cathedral City. Formerly known as "Palm Springs Country Club Estates", it is more commonly referred to as "Dream Homes". The neighborhood is sandwiched between Ramon Road, Gene Autry Trail, and the Desert Princess golf course, with Agua Caliente Park and an elementary school at it's center. The Barrio Dream Homes gang claims the whole thing as "their" territory and has been terrorizing and victimizing the dirt poor Hispanic residents there for the better part of thirty years. There are at least 100 active gang members and the gang is suspected of participating in at least one murder a year between 1992 and 2006. Since the mid-1980's, there have been twenty one murders that can be directly linked to the gang. When I moved to Palm Springs and became acquainted with life long residents, they all told me the same thing "Stay away from Dream Homes!"

So if you saw a bunch of vatos hanging around on Ramon Road, you were probably driving past the streets that feed into Dream Homes.