COMMENT BY
COMMENT ABOUT PLACE
Desert Hot Springs, CA
COMMENT
Lifetime resident - oversharing of course
I am 29 years old and have lived in this city nearly my entire life. When my family moved to this town, there were less than 12,000 people. I've watched it grow a lot.
Now, I am mainly writing this review because this site says we have snow. I don't know who wrote that we have 5 inches of snowfall per year, but whoever did has no idea what they're talking about. I've never seen snow there my entire life. Only a few hail storms throughout my entire lifetime and an occasional frozen puddle during winter. This is a desert community where temperatures regularly reach 115-120 degrees Fahrenheit in the summer, easily. There are little shade trees in this area - mostly creosote bushes.
There are very few streets that have sidewalks (other than the main roads Palm & Pierson) and the streets are very dark when driving at night. Many pedestrians are struck and killed trying to cross the streets at night. It happens ALL THE TIME, but people refuse to use crosswalks out here.
If you're looking for areas to live, avoid neighborhoods that are in walking distance of the stores. Areas off of Ironwood, Two Bunch Palms, Hacienda, the A-G streets from Acoma to Granada, and the numbered streets are all pretty low income and not known for having the best crowds. May find increased crime in these areas. Areas that are better suited for living: Mission Lakes Country Club, streets north of Mission Lakes Blvd, areas on the outer edges of town, and newer communities such as Skyborne. They are far from stores and public transportation. Most people need to own a car to live here and these areas are typically areas with higher incomes and less crime (except theft - thieves will steal from nicer neighborhoods if possible - but only if they have transportation there ;) ).
The schools are not the best. I have attended almost all of them. My four children are homeschooled through Springs Charter instead. We had LOTS of problems in the public school system. I do work with local teachers from just about every school though for my job.
There is little to do in this town if you don't like the outdoors. There are no movie theaters, malls, water parks, etc.. But we do have a small museum, a few parks / playgrounds, a recreation center complete with olympic sized pool (they offer free swimming classes for kids at different times throughout the year), and we have a nature preserve west of the city called Mission Creek Preserve. What else is there to do?
There are only a handful of sit-down restaurants. The rest are all fast-food. There are two main grocery stores, a few gyms (the one off of Mission Lakes and Little Morongo is HUGE and has childcare), and oh, there are a TON of marijuana facilities. If you hate the smell, don't drive through our industrial areas. If you love it, there are like a million shops.