Imagine, it’s a beautiful day in the desert and you decide the best way to celebrate the day’s glory is to plan a bike ride. You and your friends begin to map out a route (perhaps ending with a victory solar powered margarita stop) but then realize there is no safe route without busy traffic and enough bike space for your two-wheeled cruise. You have to choose between taking the life or death risk of sharing the road with cars and trucks, or give up on the ride and take a car instead. This scenario happens time and time again, all over the Coachella Valley. Riders at risk or bike rides thwarted can and should be a thing of the past. It’s time to approve the CVLink and turn our collective focus on how great of an addition it can be to the Coachella Valley Lifestyle.
The proposed CVLink would run 50 miles long going from Palm Springs into the lower Coachella Valley area. Around 54% of all public school students live within a mile of the CVLink. This new development would create 690 permanent jobs in the valley. An economic income report shows that the CVLink would bring in an expected 1.47 billion in economic benefits. In addition, the Coachella Valley Association of Governments has raised 76 million to help fund this project. The California Transportation Committee has awarded the project 5.5 million as well leaving an estimated total at about 81.5 million.
Hot Purple Energy, a longtime proponent of healthy living, community bike rides, and yes -solar powered lives, gives our full support to this health and community-minded transportation corridor.
A project of this scale takes thought and debate for sure. But let’s get past IF we’re going to do it and onto HOW we are going to take advantage of all the great opportunities the CVLink has, beyond being the needed transportation corridor. There are a lot of great debates to be had on how to utilize the community access point hub services and attractions, while paving the way forward for our residents and visitors alike, to have a safe and beautiful place to ride their bikes or cruise in a golf cart with friends.
If the Whitewater River was running with water it would be an outdoor recreation and transportation asset for the entire community and the CVLink stands to make it just that. In fact, if you set out to create an opportunity to link health, commerce, and sustainability together, you would be hard-pressed to create one with numerous advantages for so many along with so few cons for a relative few. The CVLink connects our community and restores the river to the life-giving resource any good river ought to be.
We ask all of you to reflect on the CVLink and inform yourself. Weigh in. Voice your opinion at the next meeting which will be held at the Palm Desert City Council Chambers on Monday, May 15th from 6-9pm. HPE believes it is public spaces like these that help build strong, healthy, and happy communities across our valley, which is why we say RIDE ON to CVLINK!
of healthy living, community bike rides, and yes -solar powered lives, gives our full support to this health and community-minded transportation corridor.