Besides my less-than-stellar photography skills, the "Rainbow Fountain" (it's official name is the Rainmaker, but locally known as the rainbow fountain or rainbow waterfall) above doesn't look as spectacular as it can because it is bone-dry, drained of water. I took this photo this afternoon, an 82-degree Fahrenheit, glorious, tourist-studded afternoon in downtown Palm Springs.The Rainmaker fountain is on the corner of Alejo Road and North Palm Canyon Drive. The concrete stairs lend a waterfall effect when water is running through the channel and from the pipes in the main well over them. And the pipes above are designed to be moved by the weight/water pressure like a fulcrum, or fulcrums. These pipes are the "rainbow," each of them painted in primary colors. It's a graceful swinging effect with water splashed just barely over the fountain's furthest concrete border.
Why would the city fathers and mothers see it fit to turn off the water on a glorious tourist-magnet day like this and deprive them of this site of a fountain the Chamber of Commerce touted repeatedly as a major artistic acquisition for the city? Well, there was this teeeeensy little issue about homeless men and women bathing in it and seeking relief from the often-scorching desert sun. The homeless which the city boosters try really, really hard to pretend don't exist.
Here's a couple of close-up shots:
No comments:
Post a Comment