El Paseo
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
El Paseo is downtown Palm Desert's main shopping street. The area around the street has evolved into an upscale shopping district featuring 150 exclusive boutiques, art galleries, and restaurants. El Paseo is often compared to Beverly Hills' Rodeo Drive due its concentration of posh retail outlets and lush landscaping. The street itself runs parallel to State Route 111, which serves as the main thoroughfare in the Palm Springs metropolitan area.
At the center of Palm Deserts' shopping mile is El Paseo Gardens, a shopping mall featuring forty-two stores and five restaurants. The mall also includes a public square with a large modern art fountain at its center. Despite common triple digit temperatures during the summer, El Paseo Gardens remains an open-air mall with roof-like shades shielding costumers from the desert heat. As in many other desert cities, a light mist of water is sprayed onto customers in order to provide a cooling relief from the desert heat.
Part of maintaining the area's chic image is the use of public spaces along Palm Desert's "Miracle Mile." Colorful flowerbeds fill the spaces in between the palm trees that grace El Paseo's sidewalk and median, only to be accented by displays of modern art sculptures which tend to match the street's cheerful, yet sophisticated ambiance. At night, antique street lights illuminate the street and sidewalk while lightning ropes wind their way up the palm trees' trunks. During Christmas time, holiday ornaments are attached to the palm trees that line the road. A real Christmas tree decks the entrance to the El Paseo Gardens shopping mall, while another artificial lights-only Christmas tree can be found on the roof.
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