The LA Times Throws Shade at Palm Trees; Why Your Cell Phone Will Squeal Wednesday Morning–Coachella Valley Independent’s Indy Digest: Oct. 2, 2023

Indy Digest: Oct. 2, 2023

Palm trees are kind of a big deal in the Coachella Valley.

The word “Palm” starts the names of two of the valley’s cities. The date shake is arguably our signature food. And, uh, you may have noticed that palm trees are everywhere around here.

All of this is why I did a double-take when I saw a story in the Los Angeles Times today with the headline: “SoCal cities desperately need more shade. Is it time to finally ditch palm trees?” An excerpt:

With their towering trunks and thick fronds, palms have long dominated the skyline of the Los Angeles Basin. … None are native to the area, however.

In the 1800s and 1900s, new Angelenos imported palms from elsewhere in the world. In the 1930s, the city underwent its biggest palm planting boom, with more than 25,000 palms planted in 1931 alone.

“They conjure up images of far off, exotic, tropical rainforests, which is a far cry from what I grew up in here in California,” said Donald R. Hodel, emeritus horticulture adviser for the UC Cooperative Extension in L.A. County and a lifelong palm researcher.

But cities nationwide are rethinking the role, and future, of these iconic trees.

West Palm Beach in south Florida announced it was ditching palms to fight the climate crisis because they don’t provide much shade or sequester carbon well. Last year, Miami Beach adopted a plan to reduce the percentage of palms that make up its urban tree canopy from 60% to 25% over the next 30 years. And the city of Los Angeles specifically indicates it will not plant palms as part of its free tree streets program. Neither will Long Beach.

Even the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection forbids recipients of its urban and community forestry grants to plant them.

“The reason that we don’t allow palms is because the benefit-to-cost ratio is not amenable,” said Walter Passmore, Cal Fire’s state urban forester. “They require a lot of maintenance and do not provide a lot of benefits in comparison to trees.” (Palms are closely related to grasses).

You didn’t know that palm trees aren’t even trees? Yep. Biologically, they’re more or less REALLY BIG “blades” or grass. Sort of.

(It’s important to note that there is one type of palm tree that is native to the Coachella Valley; click here to read a little more about the California fan palm.)

The story goes on to talk about how bad climate change is, and how good shade trees are, and how palm trees barely create any shade at all.

That LA Times headline was deceiving, in a way: There’s no way in heck that L.A. is going to be ditching palm trees, and that’s certainly never going to be happening in the Coachella Valley.

However, if a city has a choice between planting a palm tree or an actual tree that will provide shade—or if a homeowner has that choice, or a property manager has that choice—the actual tree is the way to go.

Want tickets to One Night Out Bollywood? Email me!

The event description for this fundraiser—for the Foundation for Palm Springs Unified School District’s educational enhancement programs—sounds pretty cool, right? “Get ready for dazzling saris and dashing sherwanis as we pay homage to the fabled film industry with a whirlwind of vibrant color and rhythmic vibes for one sensational night. Shimmy the night away celebrating the beauty, artistry, creativity and hilarious hijinks of legendary Bollywood. Experience: Fabulous food and out-of-this continent cocktails by Lulu; live entertainment with BollyPop LA, a Bollywood dance troupe featured in national television ads by Athleta and Google; irresistible dance vibes with global DJ beats; red carpet photos and video on the 360° platform; onsite henna tattoo artists, loads of bangles, scarves; and more.”

It takes place this coming Saturday, Oct. 7, at the Palm Springs Air Museum—and the Independent has four pairs of tickets to give away. If you’re interested in them, email me at jboegle@cvindependent.com by 11 a.m. tomorrow (Tuesday, Oct. 3). We’ll take everyone who emails me, and then select four winners at random—so drop me a line!

(Full disclosure: The organizers of the event paid for discounted advertising in the Independent and Indy Digest, but our agreement didn’t include this giveaway.)

—Jimmy Boegle

More News

• Indian Canyon Drive is again open through the wash! The city of Palm Springs announced today, via a community advisory: “Following an expedited cleanup due to the impacts of Tropical Storm Hilary, the city of Palm Springs is pleased to announce that on Monday afternoon, city street crews will open two newly constructed temporary lanes along North Indian Canyon Drive at the wash so that motorists can once again use this important gateway artery into Palm Springs and Desert Regional Medical Center, while crews continue to repair the remaining road damage. … A new four-way stop has been installed at Palm Springs Station Road and North Indian Canyon Drive. Motorists are advised to use caution crossing the construction zone.”

• Our partners at Calmatters have the details on California’s brand-new U.S. senator. “(Laphonza) Butler currently serves as president of EMILYs List, an organization that works to elect Democratic women who support abortion rights. She was for many years the head of SEIU Local 2015, a union representing California long-term caregivers, before becoming a partner in what was then known as SCRB Strategies, Newsom’s political consulting firm, and later working in public policy for Airbnb. She’s also a former University of California regent. Her selection allows Newsom, who enjoys making political history with his appointments, to once again celebrate a milestone—Butler is the first openly LGBTQ person to represent California in the Senate. She lives in Maryland with her partner, Neneki Lee, and their daughter, Nylah, according to an online biography. … Republicans swiftly criticized Newsom for choosing someone from outside the state. Izzy Gardon, a spokesperson for the governor, said that Butler is a longtime California homeowner who moved to the Washington, D.C., area to run EMILYs List and that she would re-register to vote in California before being sworn into the Senate.”

• The Wall Street Journal (subscription required to read the full piece) notes a concerning increase in small-business bankruptcies: “Small-business bankruptcy filings are rising this year, a signal that increased interest rates, tighter lending standards and higher operating costs are straining entrepreneurs. At the same time, some government aid programs that helped entrepreneurs through the COVID-19 pandemic have ended. … The Federal Reserve’s efforts to slow inflation by raising interest rates have been particularly painful for small businesses, which tend to operate with thinner profit margins and smaller cash reserves than larger companies. The increased bankruptcies are coming from filings under Subchapter V, a newer provision in federal bankruptcy code that makes it easier for financially stressed small businesses to restructure. Nearly 1,500 small businesses filed for Subchapter V bankruptcy this year through Sept. 28, nearly as many as in all of 2022, according to the American Bankruptcy Institute.”

• Time magazine looks at a growing problem in the U.S. solar industry: Non-functioning rooftop solar panels: “Obscured by the recent rush to sign up households for rooftop solar and speed up the electrification of America are those who already have solar panels on their roof that do not work. Many were early adopters who did the ‘right’ thing for the planet, installing solar before the expanded financial incentives that came out of the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA). Because solar was more expensive in the 2010s, many entered into leases with solar companies to defray upfront costs, and many were left in the lurch when those companies went out of business. Often, their solar leases were packaged and sold, alongside thousands of others, to private equity companies and other investors who were not incentivized to ensure, years into the leases, that service was good or that panels even worked. … The thousands of households signing up for solar today hoping for energy independence could also find themselves dependent on opaque companies who are slow to respond to problems or who are no longer in business. For all the promise of solar—that it can help wean us off fossil fuels and cut our energy bills—the focus on speeding adoption has come at a cost: it allows unreliable players to flourish in a booming industry.”

• An error by Amazon over the weekend freaked out a whole lot of customers who were worried that their accounts had been hacked. CNBC explains: “Customers on social media said they were sent three consecutive emails, some Saturday night and others Sunday morning, thanking them for their purchases of Google Play, Mastercard and Hotels.com gift cards, despite never having bought them. ‘An error in our system resulted in an order confirmation email being sent to customers who did not purchase a gift card. We are emailing these customers to inform them of the error and apologize for the inconvenience,’ an Amazon spokesperson wrote in an email to CNBC. Customers who received the false emails do not have to take any further action. The faulty Amazon emails also contained a paragraph warning users against gift card scams: ‘There are a variety of scams in which fraudsters try to trick others into paying with gift cards from well-known brands.’” Oops!

• Today’s featured recall involves electric skateboards. CNN says: “All models of Onewheel electric skateboards are being recalled after the maker Future Motion received reports of four deaths of users between 2019 and 2021 and multiple reports of serious injuries. In the recall notice for 300,000 of the self-balancing skateboards, the US Consumer Product Safety Commission warned people to immediately stop using the skateboards, which ‘can stop balancing the rider if the boards’ limits are exceeded, posing a crash hazard that can result in serious injury or death.’ The deaths resulted from head trauma, and in at least three of those cases, the rider was not wearing a helmet, the agency said. … Santa Cruz-based Future Motion initially refused to agree to a recall in November, when the Consumer Product Safety Commission first warned customers to stop using the skateboards. … Future Motion is now cooperating with the recall, and the company is rolling out a firmware update to address the safety issues.”

• And finally … prepare yourself for a squealing cell phone at 11:20 a.m. on Wednesday. CNN reports: “If you hear a screeching alert go off on your cell phone—and everyone else’s cell phone—this Wednesday at 2:20 pm ET, don’t panic. The federal government said it will conduct on Wednesday afternoon a nationwide test of its Emergency Alert System and Wireless Emergency Alerts. The EAS portion of the test will send an emergency alert to all radios and televisions, while the WEA portion of the test will direct alerts to all consumer cell phones. ‘The purpose of the Oct. 4 test is to ensure that the systems continue to be effective means of warning the public about emergencies, particularly those on the national level,’ the Federal Emergency Management Agency, which is conducting the test in coordination with the Federal Communication Commission, said in a statement.”

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