To the editor: I’m not anti-development, but I am anti-clueless/entitled/oblivious development. Disney’s Cotino project in Rancho Mirage is just another pricey Stepford project to isolate the wealthy in a fake environment where the climate changes only outside the gates.
Cotino scrapes 600 acres of subtle desert beauty best suited to domicile the wide variety of wildlife it will destroy. Even now the Coachella Valley’s notorious wind, dust and sand are exacerbated by leaf-blowing groomers spewing carbon, toxins and allergens in a Sisyphean effort to eradicate what can only be moved around.
Imagine the additional damage Cotino will inflict, not to mention the increased traffic on roads that already require frequent resurfacing because of the deleterious effects of unrelenting heat. Then there’s the Disney drive to pretend resources and affordable housing are not diminishing in this valley.
The only good feature of such mindless massive development here is that there will be more sand into which its creators can stick their heads.
Ellen Alperstein, Palm Desert
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To the editor: Disney is building a community for the rich (of course) and installing a large lagoon in the desert? How is this possible?
At this time of climate change and water scarcity, what governmental body would allow this?
Raymond Wells, San Pedro
