There is a chance Palm Springs could bring back the free Buzz shuttle.
Sunline, who run the buses around the rest of the city, has presented a plan to resurrect the trolley service (which was pretty great) at a reduced cost, according to the Desert Sun.
Sunline’s plan would be to operate the buses on Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays from noon to 10 pm between September and April at a cost of $232,500 to the city of Palm Springs – which could also decide to spend a bit more to operate the trolley additional months, if they wanted to. The city says it had been spending a million dollars a year on the Buzz.
The cost of the Buzz has been a hot button issue in Palm Springs over the past couple of years – with the Palm Springs Police Officer’s Association even taking a jab at it – despite it seeming to be a pretty great alternative to drunk people getting behind the wheel of a car.
Despite residents passing a sales tax increase, the city voted 4 to 1 to get rid of the Buzz anyway, because Palm Springs can’t have nice things.
While some on the council may be for bringing the Buzz back, Mayor Buzzkill told the Desert Sun there are other priorities.
Even at the reduced price, Mayor Rob Moon said it was still an expense the city hadn’t budgeted for in the next fiscal year and they had to be careful as they were still negotiating contracts with multiple city employee labor unions.
“We will have to look at this carefully because we’re facing a lot of conflicting priorities,” he said.
Of course, there were no conflicting priorities when the mayor yucked it up with Suzanne Somers during the Buzz’s first birthday celebration. A few years later, the mayor called the Buzz “a Steve Pougnet thing” and voted to get rid of it.
