The New York Times - November 24, 1984

But progress is knocking at the clubhouse doors, and not everyone in this Coachella Valley community is rushing to answer. Many longtime residents fear the urban taint of Los Angeles, 100 miles to the northwest, is bringing unwanted big-city changes to their sunny hideaway.

Tourism, the largest industry in Palm Springs, is about to get its biggest lift since air-conditioning with a new convention center, several luxury hotels and the expansion of the main shopping mall. New housing and retail developments have attracted a wider range of residents, including a sizable homosexual population that has integrated neatly with longstanding social and business circles.

"It seems as if every time I walk around here I see some awful new thing," Dr. Christopher DeWald said as he strolled up Indian Avenue with his daughter Katherine. "It really is a case of 'there goes the neighborhood.' "

The city has struggled to keep its resort aura by dictating anything from the color of paint used on buildings to forbidding the use of the word "motel" on guest lodgings. "Villas," "hometels" and "lodges" painted various shades of sand or smokewood abound, and the even the local link in the national Motel 6 chain has become the upwardly mobile Hotel 6.

In a city where the golden arches of McDonald's have become beige bas- relief stucco, the building of a $71 million convention center and the addition of 3,000 hotel rooms cannot escape notice. "We like to think of it as the renaissance of Palm Springs," said Michael Fife, director of marketing for the Convention and Visitors Bureau.

Others say the new era is more like the Dark Ages. "There was nothing here when we bought this 40 years ago," said Myrtle M. Gross, who owns a small motel on the north end of town. "I don't see why they have to build all those big fancy hotels, but I guess I'll just sit in my rocker and watch the progress until I fall over."

Shopkeepers complain that the mall, which will house I. Magnin and Saks Fifth Avenue, will drive smaller businesses away. "If all these little stores go out of business, the city will lose its charm," said Mary Aaroe, gesturing toward the construction site across the street from her silversmith's store.

Mayor Frank Bogert, who first came to Palm Springs in 1927, can remember when he held horse races down the city's unpaved main street. The convention center and new hotels will attract as many as 225,000 conventioneers annually, he said, in addition to the year-round population of 37,000 and the seasonal influx of snowbirds escaping East Coast and Canadian winters.

"No matter what we do, this place is going to get bigger," Mayor Bogert said. "The best we can do is to control it, and control those conventioneers with their funny hats and badges."

For homosexuals, the upsurge in business has provided a low-key way of making their presence known. Over the past few years, bars, discoth eques, restaurants, hair salons and other establishments in Palm Srings and nearby cities have been bought or opened by homosexuals, and a condominium complex is nearing completion.

The relationship between the city and the new entrepreneurs has been described as amicable by both sides, and the atmosphere has inspired the Desert Business Association, a homosexual chamber of commerce that boasts 147 members, to promote Palm Springs nationally as a vacation spot.

"This is a sophisticated community with excellent hotels and services," said Ron Christenson, president of the association. "The whole area has grown tremendously, and so has the gay community." In addition to the businesses, visiting homosexuals have access to two churches, two magazines and counseling services.

"All you need here are swim trunks and dancing shoes," Anthony Sudich, who is homosexual, said on his first trip to Palm Springs. "Next to this, L.A. and San Francisco are a pit."

In addition to being a tourist spot, Palm Springs has long been a mecca for the ailing. The city once harbored a tuberculosis sanitarium, and people suffering from asthma, arthritis and other diseases have sought relief in the dry desert air and natural mineral baths.

Fred Hardt, owner of a hotel that caters to homosexuals, is planning to capitalize on the healing values of the desert by converting his establishment to a resort for victims of acquired immune deficiency syndrome or AIDS. But his plans have polarized local residents, pitting those who fear contagion and adverse publicity against those who feel the patients are like any other group of sick people hoping to find some relief.

Some motel owners assert that publicity about the proposed resort has resulted in nervous telephone calls and even a few cancellations. Jeannine Leavitt, a wealthy local resident, called the project a danger to the city.

On the other side, Dr. David Dassey of the Riverside County Health Department commended the project, citing the need for such facilities and assuring the public that the disease is not highly contagious. The resort is to open Dec. 1.

"The hotels, this AIDS thing, all this stuff is just appalling," said Leslie Andersen, standing along Palm Canyon Drive at dusk and watching the illuminated palm trees that serve as streetlights fire up for the night. "We come here to get away from it all, and it looks now like it's all coming to us."

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