Palm Desert – is a city in Riverside County, California. Palm Desert’s coordinates are 33°43′32″N, 116°22′10″W. Palm desert has a total area of 63.7 km². Palm Desert’s total land area is 63.1 km² while 0.6 km² is water or 1.02% of the total area. Palm Desert is elevated 250 feet above sea level. Palm Desert is about 11 miles east of Palm Springs in the Coachella Valley.

The city of Palm Desert has a population of 41,155. This figure is subdivided to 19,184 households, which can be further subdivided to 11,414 families that live in Palm Desert.Palm Desert has 28,021 housing units. There are 652 people living in Palm Desert per square kilometer. Palm Desert’s populace can be separated by race, specifically, 86.84% White, 1.20% African American, 0.45% Native American, 2.57% Asian, 0.10% Pacific Islander, 6.48% from other races, and 2.36% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 17.08% of the population.

Residents of Palm Desert have a median income of $48,316 per household, and $58,183 per family. Male residents have an average income of $42,257 compared to $32,463 for females. All data regarding Palm Desert’s demography and statistics are based on United States 2000 Census data.

Restaurants
Palm Desert was originally called Old MacDonald Ranch. Palm Desert’s original name was changed in the 1920’s to Palm Village. Palm Desert’s original name was changed when date palms where planted in the area. In 1943, a portion of the Palm Desert area was developed into a residential area due to an Army maintenance camp in the area. The Palm Desert Corporation began to develop the area to real estate in 1948. The area was named “Palm Desert” in 1951. The Palm Desert Community was incorporated in November 26,1973. General George Patton’s Third Army troops and tank battalions used the Palm Desert area as a training ground.

Palm Desert’s El Paseo is one of the city’s attractions. It is Palm Desert’s main shopping street. Palm Desert’s El Paseo is comparable to Beverly Hills’ Rodeo Drive. Palm Desert’s El Paseo is on par ,and perhaps, surpasses other places when it comes to posh shopping and boasts beautiful landscaping.The street runs parallel to State Route 111. The El Paseo Gardens is found at the heart of Palm Desert’s shopping mile. The El Paseo Gardens features 42 stores and 5 restaurants. It also features a large, modern art fountain at its center. The El Paseo Gardens is an open-air mall with with roof-like shades that protects the customers from the desert heat.

Entertainment
Another site that’s worth a visit in Palm Desert is the Living Desert Zoo and Gardens. It can be found at 47-900 Portola Avenue, Palm Desert, California. The gardens was founded in 1970 as a 145 hectare preserve by the Palm Springs Desert Museum.The zoo/garden housed a kit fox, tortoises, lizards, and two bighorn sheep in 1974. Between 1974 and 1975, the Mojave garden was built. The Mojave Garden is a replica of the high California desert. The Palm Desert’s Living Desert Zoo and Gardens was further developed with further additions to the facilities such as greenhouses, landscapes, and new animals like the slender-horned gazelle in 1981; mountain lions, bobcats and badgers in 1993; cheetahs and warthogs in 1995; and giraffes and ostriches in 2002. Palm Desert’s garden/zoo has a unique meerkat exhibit. This unique exhibit inspired a character in the Walt Disney movie, Lion King, named Timon.

Yet another notable site in Palm Desert is the McCallum Theater. McCallum Theater is a state-of-the-art performing arts center found at the center of the city of Palm Desert. It was founded in 1988. Palm Desert’s McCallum Theater enjoys a quarter million theater-goers annually. Music lovers should definitely come to check out the Palm Desert Scene. The Palm Desert Scene is a group of musicians that saw its beginnings in the early 1990’s. Kyuss, a pioneering band in the stoner rock movement, was a member of the Palm Desert Scene. Other notable bands that belong to the Palm Desert Scene are the Queens of the Stone Age, Masters of Reality, Eagles of Death Metal, Mondo Generator, Brant Bjork, Unida, Hermano, Slo Burn, Fu Manchu, Yellow 5, earthlings?, Ween, Che, Mark Lanegan, Fatso Jetson, Orquesta del Desierto, Monster Magnet, and Nebula.

Schools
Education in palm Desert is handled by two school districts, the Desert Sands Unified School District and the Palm Springs Unified School District. Desert Sands School District is in charge of 20 elementary schools, 7 middle schools, and 5 high schools; while Palm Springs School District is in charge of 15 elementary schools, 4 middle schools, and 5 high schools.

A notable school in Palm Desert is the Palm Desert High School. Palm Desert High School was founded in 1986. Palm Desert is proud of the fact that palm Desert High School is the top School in Riverside County in terms of academics. Young matelote should consider this high school since it is noted for their sports programs in Tennis, Golf, Swimming, Baseball, Football, and Water Polo. An extension of the California State University, San Bernardino can be found in Palm Desert. It could be noted that The University’s extension at Palm desert was funded purely via private means.

Another notable school in Palm Desert is the University of California, Riverside, Palm Desert or UCR Palm Desert. UCR Palm Desert saw its beginnings when the city of Palm Desert allowed building to begin in January 2004. This was made possible through a $10 million donation from the state of California and a donation of 20 acres of land. Construction of the campus was completed in June 2005. Classes in UCR Palm Desert began in September 26, 2005 in both the MBA and MFA academic programs.

UCR Palm Desert is notable for having the finest research university system in the world. UCR has had a long history of research in social and cultural issues, agriculture and environmental sciences in the Coachella Valley.

Trivia
Here are some other interesting Trivia about the city of Palm Desert:

Palm Desert is the Filming location for the 1963 movie, It’s a Mad Mad Mad Mad World.
The 34th President of the United States Of America, Dwight “Ike” Eisenhower, resided in Palm Desert.