Desert Magazine: Why did you decide to move here in 1977?
Mayor Jan Harnik: I'm born and raised in Pacoima. It’s in the San Fernando Valley. I spent a lot of time in Southern California, and then I met this person and he had a house in Rancho Mirage, and he was originally from North Jersey. And then I wound up moving here to Rancho Mirage.
Desert: What made you feel like you could put down roots here?
Harnik: As a kid, we would come here … load the kids up in the 1957 Country Squire and go down to the date festival and watch the ostrich races or go down to the Salton Sea and swim. So, I was comfortable [here]. The beauty of the desert is just so breathtaking to me. This morning, I was at the gym looking out the window and I called the trainer. I said, "Look at the pink and purple mountains. And those palm trees … and the shadows on the mountains at certain time of day are so striking … it's just so gorgeous." It was so easy to be here because of the beauty. The last place I had lived before I moved here was Manhattan Beach. And I worked in Century City and I would go back and forth … sitting on that freeway. I say we live more life here. If I have to go to my dentist, it's 10 minutes. It’s easier here.
Desert: So, you’ve lived here for almost 50 years. What are the most startling changes?
Harnik: I miss seeing the Sand verbena [plant] in spring because we had that open space and it was covered with beautiful flowers. We don't have that anymore. I miss that in the springtime after a nice rain. And you expect to see those beautiful hills that are just violet. I do miss that. It is interesting to see the amount of traffic we have now during the season. You can imagine in the ’70s, we barely had streetlights on 111. In ’77, ’78, we had those serious floods. And you were on one side of the [Whitewater] Wash [or] you were on the other. We didn't have bridges. It's too bad that sometimes we have so much traffic, but we also have such great amenities.
Desert: I noticed on your resume that some of your earlier involvement community-wise was with Palm Desert High School. Is that a pattern – how you moved from working with the high school to getting involved in the community as a civic leader?
Harnik: Absolutely. And I just told this story this morning to the directors – how I got involved. I started getting involved when [my] children were in high school. You better be involved because then the teachers don't feel bad picking up the phone and calling you when they need to. And it turns out I was the only one at Palm Desert High that didn't have perfect children. I worked with a couple of my girlfriends – Jan Hawkins, who was with The Living Desert Zoo, and a woman named Phyllis Miller. And we were part of the [Palm Desert High School] Foundation and we raised money for academics.
At Palm Desert, some of those kids’ parents might have a jet. Some of those kids have lived in cars. What we just wanted to do was create an even playing field for every student. We raised money to give the teachers tools to teach. We raised money for scholarship students so that they could do SAT prep courses and then take the SAT. If they wanted to take an AP course, we would buy their books. It was really to elevate the academic opportunity for every student.
Desert: How did you get into politics?
Harnik: I was with some friends of mine in Tujunga having dinner. I was saying there was [sic] some issues and I was [concerned]. One of my friends from kindergarten said, "What are you doing about it?" I said, "Well, I'm telling you." He said, "Well, [do something] and quit your bitching." Later on, I was at one of the fundraisers … at Toscana. They were very kind. They gave us the golf course for free so that we could do a fundraiser. During the evening part of the fundraiser, somebody came up to me and said, "You know what? You should run for council."
Desert: What year was that?
Harnik: This was probably in 2009. And my two youngest were seniors. And I thought, “Well, I'll have time.” I thought about it and I decided to do it. And I knew I was going to have to work harder than anybody else. I walked door to door throughout this whole city. I walked door to door to door and said, "Elect me. I'm going to represent you." And then my friend said to me, "Jan, do you remember when I told you to quit your bitching if you're not going to do something about it?" He says, "I take credit for this."
Desert: How was Palm Desert’s city government structured then?
Harnik: To my knowledge, it's always been rotational – one-year terms [for mayor]. It is important to remember [that] there are five council people. It's five people who set the policy. We're working together to achieve the goals we've set. We have goal-setting sessions where we talk about what's important to us and what are we going to try and achieve. Some of them are one year and some of them are multi-year projects, but we have to work together to get that done. It's not a one-person job. The mayor does a lot of ceremonial things, but really, that's why there's five people is to make those decisions together and to go forward with the effort. There's one person who you give that vision to, who then implements it, and that's the city manager. The way I see it is I'm one of five and we work together, and the five of us can achieve more if we're working together in the same direction.
Desert: Can you explain how the city evolved into five districts?
Harnik: It's important to understand that this is … a Sacramento mandate. No one gets a choice. This is a one-size-fits-all Sacramento mandate. If you are at a certain number of people, your population is at a certain number, then you must go to districts. Now, of course, you look at some place like Los Angeles. That's 400 square miles. It would be very difficult to walk it and to get to know it. But here, we're a small town, and no one has yet shown me how division brings people together. I still believe we were better as a [single district]. When I walked precincts, I heard from everybody. And it wasn't that there was any great division of, “Oh no, we want one thing” [versus] “We want the other.” People, I think, basically want the same thing. They want to be comfortable. They want to know that they have good education in their community. They want good parks. They want a grocery store where they live. They want the same things. And when we're working together and recognizing there are certain projects we need to prioritize – a flood system [or] a water management system – [then] the whole of Palm Desert comes together and says, "Let's take care of that." That's how it should be.
Desert: I looked at the five-district map this morning. How were those borders decided?
Harnik: It was magical. [She laughs.] No, there are certain rules. You can't have breaks in it. It has to be one piece. It can't be like a crazy piece. You have to try and create neighborhoods, but it's difficult. And then you want to try and get the same number of people in each district. It's not an exact science at 2.3 people per home. As we build out there, now it throws everything off. In the north end, there's more than 6,000 homes that have recently been built, [are] being built, [or are] in the pipeline, entitled to be built. We're getting 20,000 new people in that area. So, now we're going to have to go back and redistrict – because a city is a living organism. It changes; it's fluid. It will continually have to be changed. That, in itself, I think causes the question, “Are districts really valid?”
Desert: In the 15 years [that you’ve been on the council], what are some of the initiatives you've seen through to completion?
Harnik: San Pablo – I think that's just a wonderful manifestation of what happens when everybody's working together. And to give you the background on it, that began with a grant from [the] Southern California Association of Governments. It was to create more walking and pedestrian-friendly neighborhoods. And I look at that now, and all the way down to [Magnesium] Falls, it's like this is Palm Desert's family room. It's so wonderful – what we've done and what the vision was. [We started with] a demonstration project up from San Gorgonio to 111. There were activities for everyone. I don't care whether you were 80 or whether you were eight, everybody was able to feel welcome and got to get a feel for it. And it was a tremendous success. And it's one of those great examples of what happens when you get public sentiment coming with you.
And then it turned back into that street that people just drove their cars up and down. Boring, blah. And I kept hearing from people, "When are you getting that done? When are you going to do it?" We had times where [sic] we laid everything out in one of our conference rooms and we had people come in and talk about it and give their ideas and what they did like or what maybe they might change. And it just created this groundswell of support. And now if you go there now, there's something about [it]. It created community.
Desert: Tell me about how you got involved with the McCallum Theatre and why that became a passion.
Harnik: I've always loved McCallum because I love theater. And when you're in Manhattan, you go to theater, it is … a job. [When] you go here, it's like five minutes from your house. You pull up, you're in. You enjoy a beautiful night, an amazing night, and then you're home in five minutes. It's such an offering. Plus, what they do for education is amazing for our Valley.
Desert: I read that nearly one million students, educators, and community members were served by the McCallum Theatre since its launch in 1997.
Harnik: There's been some great developments that have come out of the McCallum Theatre [Education] institute. These kids, some would never go to a theater just because it's not in their parents' mind. But, if we can offer them free theater so that they become people who support the arts and appreciate the arts and grow from the arts later on, that's an asset to our community. We feel that's one of our core values – supporting the arts. And Palm Desert was the first city in Riverside County that had a public arts program. We have over 150 pieces of public art throughout the city. It's part of who we are. It's part of our personality that defines Palm Desert.
Desert: What else makes Palm Desert unique among the other nine cities of the Coachella Valley?
Harnik: The educational opportunities – decades ago, the council had the vision to give 200 acres to CSU [California State University] and the UC [University of California] systems so we would have education in our Valley. And those are 200 really great acres over there. If you're ever been there and you look at the view and look at those mountains and the shadows on the mountains from that area, it's wonderful. But, they had the vision to do that. They recognized the need for accessible, relevant education for everyone in this Valley. Plus, we have the College of the Desert right here. And I think those are really issues. And we have outstanding parks, which also are [part] of the education and the health and the quality of living for everyone.
Desert: It seems like there are a lot of things for young people to do here.
Harnik: One of the priorities, too, of Palm Desert is making sure that there are programs for our youth. One thing that’s in the works is what people call a “wave park.” I think the appropriate name is Surf Lagoon. It’s going to be at Desert Willow [Golf Resort], which is the only golf course that has ever been on the cover of … Smithsonian Magazine. They very carefully placed it where they could take out a bunch of turf off the golf course and where [there wasn’t] a negative impact. They were great with us. When we worked with them, we said, “Okay, what are you going to do for our young students?” They said they would have days for them and we’d be able to have our young people in there taking surfing lessons. We're going to make sure there is something in it for our youth, for this community.
Desert: What else is on the horizon for Palm Desert?
Harnik: The train has been coming down the tracks for so long, but now we're seeing it actually happen. We know what happens with [Interstate] 10 when we have festivals here. It gets pretty horrific, and it's tough a lot of other times. We could have a commuter train going down that same corridor. We have two tracks there now. Unfortunately, we have to put a third track for part of that [because] some of the freight trains are more than a mile long, and you don't want to be a commuter train behind one of those. So, we need the third track.
We are working with RCTC – [the] Riverside County Transportation Commission. We will probably be adopting the vendor, who will then implement the second-tier EIR [Environmental Impact Report]. It's unnecessary red tape, in my view. Since there are two tracks there already, all we're doing is putting another one next to it.
Desert: Where will the rails connect?
Harnik: So far, the terminus would be in Coachella, and it would go all the way to Union Station in downtown LA. Palm Springs has a depot [and] Indio has a historic one, but it seems to me the mid-Valley one makes perfect sense in Palm Springs. And we've done the feasibility study, and we feel that a very important place where it would serve so many people so well would be right out where the CSU is, and Acrisure [Arena] is on the other side. It makes sense.
If everything goes as it should, it would [be completed by] 2040. If they could get rid of the second-tier EIR, maybe we could look at 2035. If you're going to Washington, speak their love language. Don't ask for money; ask for them to cut bureaucracy. Right now, this is the time to do that. We've worked with [Congressman Ken Calvert]. He supports it. We'll see where we can get with it.
