Now some sights in the downtown area of South Marina Drive near the intersection of highway 86.  First is that Salton City does have a chamber of commerce and I hear they have regular monthly meetings except in the summer months (June, July and August).

Their job is to provide a business friendly city and promote the area also known as the west shores to potential business.  I think if more people, especially industry find the low taxes, electricity water and it's relative close proximity to transportation, coastal shipping and willing and skilled labor, there should be no problem.

Salton city has vast tracts of vacant land for housing and as mentioned before, plenty of industry sized commercial land available.

Next, Salton city has a charter school, called Juan Bautista de Anza Charter school and is located in the downtown district.  Here's the picture:

 

Sorry for the poor quality picture, it was taken from inside my vehicle.  It is located next to the Imperial county sheriff's station (not pictured).  Almost directly across the street from the school is the West Shores market which also houses a branch of the US post office.

 

 

 

This store has a small meat and produce which the Family dollar does not contain.

 

A street sign I added to a local utility pole says "I love Salton City CA" shows how much I love the area.  My neighbors have pretty much the same opinion so they didn't mind me adding it. 

 

My next trip to Salton city will be over the long fourth of July weekend.  Then, I will photograph the local casino and other areas not previously photographed.  Also I will discuss any local happenings, if anything such as fireworks shows.

 



I was again visiting my home in Salton City for the weekend of June 14 to 16th.  It was hot averaging about 104 degrees at the high.  The sky was clear but I saw on the TV a news program that states the 15th of June starts the official Monsoon season of 2013.  I have experienced Thunderstorms here before and they can be incredible.  I hope this year could provide great lightning.

I see that in April a stakeholders symposium on potential fixes for the Salton sea was held..  In fact you can see the meeting itself on you tube.  It is however almost three hours in length.  There appears to be a growing political interest in doing something positive with the Salton sea.  I think it would be worth it to fix it up.  Salton city would benefit.  I don't mind seeing Salton city grow and it will certainly grow if the sea is cleaned up.  I just hope it doesn't turn into an Orange county or any other large coastal California city.

Me and many of my neighbors enjoy the place how it currently is, but we would like to see more shopping and dining choices.  It definitely needs more close by medical facilities.  The closest one is about a 45 minute drive to JFK hospital.

There is an abundance of low cost commercial properties available here and I would like to see industry eventually move in.  In fact, this subject was specifically mentioned at the symposium.  It appears they would be willing to give industry moving in some type of deal though specifics were not made clear.

Well anyway, I have some new sights to show you I took this last weekend while visiting my little paradise.  The first is an area known as the Riviera Keys.  A housing development practically on the sea itself.  Channels dug out to provide homes put up there their own docks.  It seems that at one time, aspirations for elegance were conceived.

 

 

This is one of the signs indicating entrance to the keys.  Each side of the entering street has this.  And now some views of the channels and homes that were built there:

 

As you can see in the last photo the water level has dropped at least ten feet leaving the boat dock of a Riviera key home high and dry.  The Salton sea clearly is drying up and if permitted to do so would destroy the air quality in southern California and most of Arizona.  I heard reports that the odor from the sea reaches the Phoenix area.  In other words the cost of a dry Salton sea would cost more to deal with then the fixing of the current sea.

 

To be continued soon, hopefully tomorrow. 

The Salton sea, pictured above, forms the eastern boundary of Salton city.  Many bird species have been observed here.  This photo was taken from the parking lot of the old yacht club.  I noticed that if you are along the shoreline with the wind blowing off the sea towards you, you can smell a strong odor similar to a rotten egg smell, but if you are beyond the shoreline such as on a jetty there is no smell which leads me to believe the water itself does not create the odor.  I hope somehow the sea can be restored not because I own a home here but for the serious air quality issues we will have if it is allowed to dry up.

 This is another view of the shoreline of the Salton sea taken from the same location looking to the north.  The picture above this one was taken looking to the south.

This photo, looking west, shows what remains of the paved parking lot of the former yacht club with the Santa Rosa mountains off in the distance.  I visited this place when the structures were still here back in the 80's.  It consisted of a two story motel, a circular restaurant/yacht club of approximately 14000 square feet, a large swimming pool and dock facilities for boats.  There were two back to back century storms which flooded the facility in the 70's and thus led to its demise.  The photo above this one shows the remains of some of those docks.

 

 

Personally, I love the Salton sea and the city very much from the vistas, though maybe hard to imagine, clean air and the weather.  We have some incredible thunderstorms that are fascinating to watch, mainly in the summer when its monsoon season.  I think they are more enjoyable then a fireworks show.  This is why I think the area should be restored and I'm spending the time to write this blog.