Palm Springs Relaxes While Lake Havasu Picks Up the Pieces

If spring break and its traditional accompaniment of youthful revelry was a contest of survival, officials in Palm Springs declared victory Tuesday as their counterparts in Lake Havasu City licked their wounds.

Police in the Arizona border city said 600 people were arrested--mostly for a variety of alcohol violations--between March 13 and Easter Sunday, an increase of nearly 70% over last year.

In contrast, Palm Springs police made about 175 arrests--a paltry number compared to past years, they said. “This was my 29th Easter week, and I’ve never seen it this quiet,” said Capt. Bill Valkenburg.

Lake Havasu City Mayor Charles Langerveld, meanwhile, said his city would have “to go back to the drawing boards.” On the bright side, he noted, there was “not a lot of violence or aggravated assaults.”

“We like to see them come, but they have to behave,” Langerveld said of college students who targeted the city along Lake Havasu for their spring break blowout.

This year’s break was a noteworthy experiment for both cities.

Palm Springs officials, bruised from the revelry of the past, closed down the city’s main drag to cruisers this year in favor of a street fair. The city succeeded in attracting a mix of families, students, older tourists and city residents to the downtown village center and has formed the foundation for a more mellow tradition, spokeswoman Julie Baumer said.

Lake Havasu City officials, on the other hand, allowed a promoter to stage spring break events. He aggressively promoted the resort town at campuses around the Western states.

The Lake Havasu campaign left Police Chief Victor M. Wilkins shaking his head. The city’s efforts in recent years to become more attractive to “responsible young people and families,” he said, “was undone with a few weeks of spring break promotion.”

The number of juveniles arrested by Lake Havasu City increased 236% over last year, Sgt. Carl Pederson said. Adult arrests increased 49% over last year.

In Palm Springs, the number of arrests and non-traffic citations totaled 489, compared to 1,157 for the period in 1992 and more than 3,000 in past years, Valkenburg said. Law enforcement costs for the period were less than $200,000, compared to $352,000 last year, he said.

The only break-related fatality in either city occurred at the notorious Copper Canyon cove, on the California side of Lake Havasu. A UC San Diego student died after jumping off a houseboat and hitting its propeller as it was backing up.