From May 15th through May 18, 2019, Palm Springs hosted the annual Neighborhoods, USA (NUSA) national conference for the first time in NUSA’s 44-year history. NUSA is the national association of neighborhood organizations and the city staffs that serve them. Nearly 700 delegates representing 29 states plus Washington DC convened to share best practices for building community and assuring productive relationships between neighborhoods and city governments. Twin Palms had the most visible presence of any Palms Springs neighborhood with its 10 table William Krisel’s Twin Palms exhibit.
Held at the Palm Springs Convention Center, this was the most expansive showing to date of the exhibit providing conference delegates the opportunity to learn about our neighborhood and its founding architect. The largest display at the conference, the exhibit occupied five tables of descriptive panels and historical artifacts, two tables of Twin Palms memorabilia, one table displaying architectural scale-models of Twin Palms homes, one table of media notices about the neighborhood, and one table with information about the exhibit and recognition of its sponsors.
The NUSA conference offered over 60 workshops and presentations, 17 community tours of the city and region (half of which were created specifically for the conference), 3 keynote speakers, and a number of displays and cultural performances. All these activities helped to fulfill the mission of the Conference to help open doors to the future of neighborhoods and their organizations. In attendance was the largest ever international delegation–22 guests from the Bahamas–, along with delegates from Canada and Japan.
The Keynote speaker for the conference was Senator Barbara Boxer. Palm Springs Mayor Robert Moon delivered opening remarks.
