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There are many detour signs and lane closures in downtown Palm Springs, leaving visitors and locals wondering what’s going on. In fact, many crosswalks and sidewalks are closed on Indian Canyon forcing some to walk on the street before even being able to safely get to the nearest sidewalk, like Phil Persons and his partner Heine Stanhobe, of 24 years, experienced during their visit.
“Everywhere we want to cross is closed so what choice do we have but to jay-walk? I don’t know…that’s not right,” Told NBC Palm Springs.
In fact, they said that these closures made it a hassle to get around.
“We’re trying to get to lunch but we can’t cross the street to get where we want to go. It’s concerning to me because my partner is handicapped and we don;t know where to cross and where is safe,” added Persons.
As it stands, it is hard enough to cross the street in downtown Palm Springs during the day because of all the construction, and heavy traffic. Now, imagine doing trying to cross the street at night, when you are leaving a bar and you do not know which side of the street is open and which is closed.
“What’s going to happen in the evening when people are half intoxicated and they don;t know when to go or where to go or where to cross. It’s a safety issue,” said Persons.
Through this all, Palm Springs City Manager David Ready said this is part of the process that will revert Indian Canyon to a two way strip.
“In a project like this you’re not going to be able to not have these kinds of interruptions from time to time. Our goal is to keep them to a minimum, and when that does happen, we will reroute pedestrian traffic,” Ready told NBC Palm Springs.
He also assures that this project will only be beneficial for Palm Springs, as it is growing and more people are expected to come and visit within the next couple of months. So, now is the time to sit tight because this project isn’t supposed to be finished until December of 2019.
