Palm Springs declared hot in the hip sense (again)

When I visited Palm Springs in April, just ahead of the Coachella festival hordes, even I could detect the desert city has taken on a fresher vibe than the previous mix of sun-baked retirees, gay and lesbian desert rats and tourists from the snow belt. I hadn’t seen the expanded design district before at the north end of town, or observed firsthand the arrival of hipper places to stay like the Ace Hotel. Now the New York Times’ Fashion and Style section deems the shift to more hipness an actual trend, and pegs the story to Leo DiCaprio recently buying the old Dinah Shore estate.