Don Barrett (aka DBs travels)'s photos with the keyword: economy

The Ace hotel, very popular and markets to hipsters. It closed this week, not enough customers to warrant staying open.

More storage of rental cars, in another part of the aiport.

More storage of rental cars, in another part of the aiport.

One readily visible marker of the impact of the virus on the Palm Springs economy is the masses of unused rental cars parked around the airport and in various other places in the valley. They seem to be parked in every available space. Why so many cars? February to May is the height of our tourist season. Besides just pleasant weather and nearby desert parks, this is also the time of major tennis and golf events, as well as the Coachella Music festival events -- all drawing 100,000’s of visitors each week. It’s a lot of unused rental cars, which means there’s also massive amounts of vacant resort (and AIRBNB) rooms, empty restaurants, closed bars, etc. AND, a huge number of unemployed service workers. …… Curious about the plane in the center? See later picture.

Well, the plane’s demise is not due to the loss of tourism. The Fire Department’s training center is near here and I’ve always assumed this was used in training, but obviously its not used for that at the moment.

Though you have to look close to see it, the United jet is not just waiting for access to the terminals – its engines are off and it is marked off with orange pylons. There are two jets at the terminal, both American (one you can barely see, it’s on the left side of the picture.) We were around the airport for about 30 minutes and the only air traffic was a private jet that landed. A friend flew to Denver on Monday on a United flight I’ve taken a number of times and it’s usually close full – she said there were 5 passengers.

Most of the fast food chains in Palm Springs appear to be open and serving food to go. Since the only place to eat is at home or in a local park, a friend and I are using Subway a lot to pick up a sandwich and drink. They have a sign on the door saying ‘no more than 6 customers’, but the most we’ve encountered was 3 others besides us. The Starbucks next to it is only open as a drive-thru (the cars in line on the right of the building); there’s also a Carl’s Jr and a Dominos in the center that are open for takeout. None of the fast food places seem to have much business.

Palm Springs Swim Center, usually busy this time of year when the mid-day temperatures are comfortable. Pools were closed by SiP (Shelter in Place) rules.

From the park where we often picnic – don’t bother to zoom in, there is no one else in this section of the park. In the distance is Palm Springs stadium, home of Palm Springs POWER Baseball, of which I know nothing about :)

Grocery store near my house, on the 11th day of “shelter in place” (SiP). Though this looks busy, it is rather quiet for what would be the height of our tourist season. Talking with one of the clerks that I know, she said the store self-monitors how many shoppers are in it. She said they try to keep it around 50, when it gets around 70 they put guards at the door and limit entry. The first time I went after SiP was instituted, there was a line of about 20 people waiting to get in (all standing at least 6’ apart.) For about the first week of SiP, there were a fair number of shelves empty, but distribution seems to be working okay now with the exception of toilet paper and cleaning supplies, which are tight. Though health officials are recommending limiting shopping trips so as to limit exposure to the virus, there is currently no actual limit. One of the reasons the parking lot is as busy as it is, is that there is also a large drug store in the shopping center and multiple restaurants that are serving ‘takeour’ food (adjacent photo). We clearly aren’t facing the limits that many in Europe are facing. Compared to the rest of the U.S., I don’t know. I get multiple new sources, but none are talking about what conditions are like in daily life for those that are healthy.