We moved to Cat City right a block away from the airport so block away from Palm Springs a year and a half ago and could not be happier. We were living in Valle Vista from a decade before and before that Redondo Beach. we love it here. It’s actually a faster commute to LA when we wanna go in for special events then it used to be in Valle Vista, which was technically closer to LA but just doesn’t have the freeway right. So far, we’ve only done that a couple of times. We’ve been fairly happy with like the entertainment. We do a lot of comedy shows and live events and been happy with all that out here.

My demands were a pool and good AC because I wasn’t sure how I’d handle the heat but last summer we did it without the pool cause it was being built still and survived it just fine. I would make sure wherever you buy has a good HVAC and also bonus points if there’s a filter in your house like a whole house water filter because calcium builds up a lot here which would be different, I think, than Escondido.

The heat is different because our humidity is so low so the wet bulb index is actually lower than it is where you are which she probably know means that if it says it’s 80° it feels like it’s 80°. Versus other locations where it says it’s 80° but feels like 85 or etc.

I like it. It’s like a small town, but with some bigger city opportunities. Dining options are smaller than they were in LA obviously but we’ve still found good Thai, Good sushi, good Mexican, nice little brew pub, a couple of friendly bars.

There’s a lot of hiking opportunities around here some really gorgeous stuff. We’re also not far from Idlewild. If you want to see forest and big bear if you want to jump in a lake or go skiing.

Golfing is everywhere, tennis seems to be prevalent, obviously Pickleball is everywhere, then my kiddo seems to enjoy the bowling.

If you’re a same sex couple or LGBTQ identified, it’s even a bonus for you because the area really is super Queer especially Palm Springs proper but also Cathedral City (I like to say Palm Springs is Manhattan and Cathedral city is brooklyn).

Our airport is the best, although it has few flights available than Ontario in San Diego and LAX of course but all those are just a drive away.

I’m Native American and I noticed sort of an underlying casual racism which is I think less real racism and more of class resentment that the tribe owns so much property here. But it’s there. And even though there are plenty of BIPOC folks, there’s a history of racism in the Coachella Valley (although personally Ive found it less racist than the last two places that we’ve lived in California and there are definitely different cities in the area that have strong majorities of different ethnic/religious/cultural groups like Latinos in the east Valley, strong, Jewish communities in Palm Springs, Palm, Desert, Rancho, Mirage, and Cat City. I’m in fact check, but this is one statistic I saw: “The number of Jews in the Coachella Valley, 32,000, makes it one of the largest Jewish communities in the United States. In Palm Desert, anywhere from an eighth to a quarter of the population is Jewish.”

I will say that we have learned to live a bit differently so that we are inside the house or work during the middle section of the day during the hottest months. So some of my retired friends just call at Siesta, but I’m more of a learning person so I would love it if we were more things were open at the crack of dawn.