On the shores of the Salton Sea, a glimmer of the American Dream drives growth

A Boomtown

The population of Salton City today is about 5,000. Two decades ago, it was only in the hundreds.  Affordability has been a huge driver of the town’s growth. Just two years ago, the median home value there was $173,700, while the median value statewide was more than four times higher. 

Many of the newcomers are families who commute to towns in the Eastern Coachella Valley to work. And unlike schools in many rural communities, enrollment trends at the local West Shores High School have mirrored Salton City’s population growth.

Meanwhile, a similar boom in resources for the community hasn’t followed. Residents lament the lack of a grocery store and medical care – there’s one health clinic in town, but it’s only open two days a week. Many of the town’s criss-crossing residential streets lack stop signs. Some community members are pushing for change.

“Obviously the community is growing because we are getting more students, but we’re not growing in resources,” said Amy Dailey, a West Shores English teacher who for nine years has commuted from her home in Brawley because she loves the school so much. 

“Getting a Subway was a big deal,” she said. “Come on. That shouldn’t be the feather in our cap.”

Longtime Salton City resident and community advocate Cecilia Dora Armenta is also asking for more. She’s seen the population swell firsthand but says that there haven’t been any good changes that have come with that growth. Instead, she feels that the community of Salton City remains isolated geographically and in other important ways.

Located in Imperial County’s northwest corner, Salton City is closer to Riverside County to its north than it is most of Imperial’s other communities, which lie on the other side of the sea and to the southeast. Many undocumented residents can’t access resources in Imperial County because of the Border Patrol check point just south of the city on Highway 86.

The most upsetting change she has seen is a worsening public health crisis, with more people with asthma and other ailments she attributes to the drying lakebed. It’s a problem that doesn’t discriminate, affecting newcomers and families with children, as well as older retirees. 

 “How can it be possible that we don’t have more resources here?” she asked in Spanish. 

For nearly a year-and-a-half, parents from the Lithium Force soccer league have been asking for grass to be put in at the Desert Shores Park. The soccer league has become an important recreational outlet for kids, but parents worry that dust from the dirt field is affecting their childrens’ health. (Video by Zoë Meyers/inewsource)

In 1991 Dennis Rieger bought two Salton City lots at auction. At the time the Temecula resident didn’t even know where Salton City was. When he first visited to see his lots, the city “looked like a ghost town,” he said. Since then he has bought and sold 14,000 lots in the area. The lots were originally formed in the late 1950s when the area was mapped out for a master community. Roads, sewage, water and power infrastructure were all built out, but the community never fully materialized. 

Rieger has been active in community discussions and initiatives to restore the Salton Sea over the years, but he says he hasn’t factored it into his business plans. He recalls his original business partner telling him, “Forget the sea. It’s cheap land by a major highway going to Mexico.”

Many of his clients over the years have lived in other parts of California and drive by Salton City on their way to visit family in Mexicali.  “They are familiar with the area, they have watched it over the years and their hope is to someday retire here and build a home,” Rieger said. “In San Diego, the average family cannot afford to buy a lot. And so this is a dream that people are dreaming.”

He does think the possible arrival of a lithium industry on the sea’s southeast shores will bring a boost to business. “The lithium will set us on fire and the lots will go up” in value, Rieger said. It’s something that has many investors speculating and predicting this is a chance to buy land that could soon be extremely valuable, but there’s no guarantee, he said.

Martha Arellano, 53, found her slice of the American Dream during a Salton Sea Estates weekend land sale. She had lived for 51 years at her family’s home in a trailer park in Coachella. Through tears she explained that the park had sold and the houses were being torn down so she needed to move. 

“We didn’t get that much money, so this is probably really, probably what I could afford,” she said.

On drives down to Mexicali she always saw the land sales sign but figured the price was too good to be true. But for $24,000 she was able to buy a lot down the street from where her nephews live and plans to build something on the property “little by little.”

“My mom always said there’s something good that comes out of something bad,” she said. “So I’m pretty sure that something good is going to come out of here.”

In the 1950s and 60s the Salton Sea became a popular vacation area, attracting weekend visitors from other areas of Southern California as well as retirees. Yacht clubs were built along the shores and water skiing and fishing were popular activities on the lake. Years later, with the water receding, the buildings, a few of which still house businesses, sit atop sand and fish bones. The area is still a destination for people looking for open spaces to spend time with friends and seek out adventure. However, today, fishing and watersports on the lake have been replaced with other popular activities: off roading and flying paramotors.  

Although waterfront tourism has largely disappeared, a close community of snowbirds – retirees who travel to the area during the winter months – and retirees who live in the area full time are still attracted to the sea for some of the same reasons that people were decades ago. The warm weather offers a perfect winter climate to relax. The sea also still attracts artists and those who are charmed by its beauty and tranquility. 

Sea View Estates, an RV and mobile home community near the sea’s shore, used to be a senior community, but now it’s home to a mix of younger families, retirees and, during the winter months, snowbirds.

Sea View Estates is where Cheryl McGee and Paul Thorpe landed after spending a couple of years moving throughout eastern San Diego County. 

“This is the last move,” said Thorpe, who suffers from a number of health issues including chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and asthma. He and McGee have noticed that he has to use his inhaler more now that they live in Salton City, and he’s more fatigued on windy days with poor air quality.

But Thorpe’s health hasn’t stopped the pair from enjoying the area, McGee says. They love the quiet and the desert weather. They often spend afternoons driving through the roads of Anza-Borrego Desert State Park, or visiting Sunbeam Lake in Seeley to fish.

Being so far from medical care, or even a pharmacy to pick up medications has been challenging. Thorpe has already had two aneurysms, and they know if he has another they may be too far away to get care in time. The nearest hospital is 45 minutes north.

“He’d be dead by the time he got to a hospital that could handle that,” McGee said. But moving isn’t something they can afford financially. “We’re comfortable,” she added. “So let’s just live our life out comfortable and forget about all the medical crap and just do the best to get by and live a happy life.”