INDIO, Calif. — A Riverside County criminal grand jury indicted the longtime mayor of Coachella on nine counts, including one felony charge of violating conflict of interest rules related to government contracts and four felony counts of perjury.
Steven Hernandez, 42, who has served on the Coachella City Council for nearly two decades, pleaded not guilty Thursday morning at the Larson Justice Center in Indio.
Hernandez was a rising politician in Riverside County and Coachella, an agricultural city of 42,500 people about 130 miles southeast of Los Angeles. If convicted as charged, Hernandez would be barred from public office for life and face more than seven years in state prison, according to Riverside County Dist. Atty. Mike Hestrin.
Hernandez was raised in Coachella by his grandparents, who were migrant farmworkers. He was first elected to the council in 2006, becoming an integral part of a powerful group of Latino politicians in the valley east of Palm Springs. Under his leadership, the city made major infrastructure investments in its downtown, including an expanded library, a new senior center and a new fire station.
But Hernandez allegedly benefited from some of the votes he cast from the dais, catching the attention of the Riverside County District Attorney’s office.
The indictment, unsealed Thursday, charges Hernandez with several misdemeanors for using his role as a public official to influence governmental decisions in which he had a financial interest. Among those were votes, cast between 2021 and 2023, to use pandemic-era American Rescue Plan Act funds to rehabilitate the downtown fire station, as well as votes on a commercial project known as Fountainhead Plaza, an affordable apartment community called the Tripoli Mixed-Use project, and a transit hub near downtown.
It also charges Hernandez with a felony for “willfully and unlawfully” approving a contract in which he had a financial interest when when he voted for an agreement between the city and the Coachella Valley Assn. of Governments’ Housing First program, which serves chronically homeless people.
An Assn. of Governments spokesperson said the organization has fully cooperated with the district attorney’s office and grand jury and “there has never been an implication from investigators that the investigation had anything to do with actions by elected officials serving in their CVAG capacity.”
The perjury charges relate to claims made by Hernandez on his Statement of Economic Interests public disclosure forms, also known as the Form 700, the district attorney said.
The indictment named 13 witnesses who testified before the criminal grand jury, including a city council member, the city’s economic development director, a former council member and a former city manager.
Hernandez will remain mayor of Coachella “until otherwise notified,” according to city spokesperson Risseth Lora.
Along with serving on the city council, Hernandez works as the chief of staff for Riverside County Supervisor V. Manuel Perez. He was placed on “indefinite administrative leave” from the county, Perez said in a statement Wednesday, adding: “Although we are still waiting on more details, it’s our understanding that the charges are unrelated to his role in our office.”
Hernandez surrendered to Riverside County Sheriff officials at the Robert Presley Detention Center in Riverside on Tuesday and posted $112,500 bail. He appeared before Riverside County Superior Court Judge John J. Ryan on Thursday morning. Wearing a navy suit, he clasped his hands behind his back as his attorney entered the plea.
He donned sunglasses as he left the courtroom.
This article is part of The Times’ equity reporting initiative,funded by the James Irvine Foundation, exploring the challenges facing low-income workers and the efforts being made to addressCalifornia’s economic divide.
As someone who’s lived in and visited family throughout the Inland Empire for years, I have seen firsthand the rapid growth that has changed the region.
When I travel to Yucaipa nowadays, the orange groves of my youthful weekend visits have long since been replaced by housing developments as the town has nearly doubled in 30 years.
My colleague Terry Castleman has been analyzing the demographic changes taking place in California but he recently took a deep dive into the explosive growth of income in the Inland Empire, in particular the south desert portion of Riverside County.
Castleman, a data reporter, noted that two of the top three communities that saw the greatest growth in average income in the state between 2017 and 2022 were in the Coachella Valley, perhaps best known for hellish summer temperatures, Palm Springs and the Coachella Valley Music & Arts Festival.
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For this analysis, The Times considered only communities with more than 3,000 tax returns. I’ll address the cities with fewer returns shortly.
Thousand Palms saw average incomes rise more than 3.5 times over that span, from $12,700 in 2017 to nearly $45,000 three years later. In nearby Indian Wells, incomes nearly doubled, from $139,000 to $256,000.
The Coachella Valley is experiencing a desert bloom
Income levels in Thousand Palms were far lower than in Indian Wells — but each is getting richer from a regionwide perspective, said Kyle Garman, an agent for Keller Williams who has sold real estate in the Coachella Valley for eight years.
Part of the story is attributable to remote work, he said, but the valley has also undergone a shift from being primarily a tourist destination to a place to settle down.
“It’s not just Palm Springs, it’s not just people coming for the festivals, it’s the whole valley,” Garman said.
Before the COVID-19 pandemic, home prices were much lower and only about 35% to 40% of residents stayed for the hottest months of the year, he said. As more attractions and infrastructure have become available to residents, though, “people are sticking around more.”
So, who is moving in?
The average California household has a net worth between three and six times their adjusted gross income, meaning that the average Indian Wells resident probably became a millionaire between 2017 and 2022 as average household income skyrocketed to $256,000 from $139,000.
In the Coachella Valley, “the money’s coming from all over,” Garman observed. When the housing market was most competitive, around 2022 and 2023, cash buyers flooded in.
Now, they’re high earners who have relocated to towns that were formerly less tony. “This is the new norm,” he said.
Garman pointed to a number of new Coachella Valley attractions that were drawing families — the Firebirds professional ice hockey team and Disney’s Cotino housing development.
Thousand Palms is unincorporated, drawing homeowners because, as one businessperson there put it: “Taxes are more reasonable, you have fewer regulations when you want to build.”
Notes that didn’t make Castleman’s cut
When Castleman looked at the income changes in smaller towns, he found some intriguing data.
He discovered staggering income jumps in towns like Helm, an unincorporated Fresno County village that has about 200 residents.
Between the 2017-2022 period, Helm saw incomes grow by 10 times, reaching near $200,000.
Castleman said many smaller towns throughout the state are disproportionately impacted by the moves of one or a handful of “big fish.”
“The experts told me that there was likely a big farm owner who reported huge losses one year and then huge gains the next year,” he said. “So, these towns can have wild fluctuations.”
Have a great weekend, from the Essential California team
Jim Rainey, staff writer Kevinisha Walker, multiplatform editor Andrew J. Campa, reporter Hugo Martín, assistant editor Karim Doumar, head of newsletters Diamy Wang, homepage intern Izzy Nunes, audience intern
Post Malone, Lainey Wilson and Cody Johnson will headline 2026’s Stagecoach country music festival, organizers announced Thursday, bringing together one of Nashville’s most successful converts with two of its most reliable hitmakers.
The three-day event, scheduled for April 24 to 26 at Indio’s Empire Polo Club, will also feature Brooks & Dunn, Ella Langley, Bailey Zimmerman, Wynonna Judd, Riley Green, Lyle Lovett, Little Big Town, Warren Zeiders, Nate Smith and Hudson Westbrook.
Among the non-country acts on the bill for the annual show, which takes place on the same grounds as Coachella the weekend after that festival, are the rappers Pitbull, Ludacris and BigXthaPlug and the rock bands Journey, Bush, Counting Crows, Third Eye Blind and Hootie & the Blowfish. Noah Cyrus and Teddy Swims will be there, as will the winner of an upcoming CBS singing competition show called “The Road.”
None of next year’s headliners is a stranger to Stagecoach, which premiered in 2007 and which in recent years has rivaled Coachella as a destination for marketers and influencers.
In 2024, Malone played a set of classic country covers at the fest that included guest appearances by Dwight Yoakam, Brad Paisley and Sara Evans; he also joined Morgan Wallen during the latter’s headlining performance to debut “I Had Some Help,” their smash duet from Malone’s first country album after his years working in hip-hop and pop. Wilson, who was named entertainer of the year at May’s ACM Awards, performed at Stagecoach in 2022 and 2023, while Johnson played in 2017 and 2022; both stars are nominated for entertainer of the year at November’s CMA Awards.
Other acts scheduled to perform at Stagecoach 2026 include Red Clay Strays, Sam Barber, Gavin Adcock, Wyatt Flores, Billy Bob Thornton, Charles Wesley Godwin, Chase Rice, Kameron Marlowe, Larkin Poe, S.G. Goodman and the Wallflowers.
Passes for the festival, which start at $549 and go up past $4,000 for various VIP packages, will go on sale Oct. 2. This past April’s show — with headliners Zach Bryan, Jelly Roll and Luke Combs — sold out in advance even as Coachella struggled to move tickets as briskly as it once did.
Goldenvoice, the L.A.-based promoter that puts on both festivals, said Monday that Coachella 2026 had sold out just days after tickets went on sale late last week. The lineup for Coachella, which the company announced months earlier than it typically does, is topped by Justin Bieber, Sabrina Carpenter and Karol G.
The Coachella 2026 lineup had, seemingly, begun leaking in the days before its official announcement, as names such as Sabrina Carpenter and Karol G started being discussed as possible headliners. Though, with both names on the heels of widely successful projects, it was hardly a “crystal ball” suggestion — it just so happened to be correct.
Saturday headliner Justin Bieber is still simmering down from a revival that resulted in two consecutive albums — “Swag” and “Swag II,” released on July 11 and Sept. 5, respectively — making his presence at the fest pretty much inevitable.
However, the real crown jewel hiding in the lineup’s fine text was an additional feature that would set off alarms: the inclusion of a group called “Nine Inch Noize” and “The Bunker Debut Of Radiohead Kid A Mnesia,” which was included at the bottom of Coachella’s lineup. Given the online fervor of both these acts it’s worth doing a quick summary of what we know about them.
Naturally, longtime fans of the English quartet swarmed social media to speculate a surprise appearance from the band. Given that Radiohead just announced its first live shows in seven years, it was mentally conceivable that they could throw in an Indio pit stop.
“Surely I’m not the only one noticing Radiohead on the Coachella lineup…” one fan wrote. Another chimed in, “What’s this about the Bunker debut of “Radiohead Kid A mnesia”… So exciting.”
Not only this, but the lineup’s Friday undercards included “Nine Inch Noize,” which seems to be a collaborative project between Nine Inch Nails and German electronic music producer Boys Noize, otherwise known as Alex Ridha. This would be NIN’s first appearance at the festival since 2005.
This one is a bit easier to break down. For context, Boys Noize provided support for Trent Reznor’s brainchild on their recent “Peel It Back” tour and even pumped out some remixes of the band’s hits.
“NIN is listed as Nine Inch Noize. That’s probably because Boys Noize has already been performing as a quasi-half member on the current tour,” one fan explained.
Past performances included a rendition of “Closer,” NIN’s second single off of its lauded sophomore album, “The Downward Spiral,” released in 1994. Though the track already leans into electronic elements, Boys Noize heightens these by tenfold into a techno bliss. On stage, Reznor bounces around under purple lights while Ridha glides along his deck.
Under a YouTube video of the live show, viewers flocked to the comments to demand more of the two: “I need a f— studio version of this remix,” one wrote.
Boys Noize is also listed separately as a performer at the festival, on Saturday.
Back to Radiohead: If the release of Radiohead’s Kid A Mnesia flew over your head, fear not. The compilation album mashes together the best of two albums: “Kid A” and “Amnesiac,” which came out just eight months apart. Its release in 2021 got some buzz, as members of the band began teasing it on social media and eager listeners began to think it may be a tour or even — the holy grail — a new album.
But, no, it would not be the long-awaited 10th studio album from Radiohead, its last release having been the gloomy but beautiful “A Moon Shaped Pool” in 2016. Instead they got “Kid A Mnesia,” which seemingly draws on commentary that the similar sonic palette between the two suggests “Amnesiac” may very well be the leftover of “Kid A.”
But what is a project from four years ago doing on the Coachella 2026 lineup and what is the Bunker?
Starting with the bad news, a representative of Radiohead told The Times “that the band will not physically be at Coachella” and there are “more details to come.” So, no, the band will not make its return to Indio — the band members last played the festival in 2017.
We can’t exactly pinpoint whatthe Bunker is, but it may have something to do with an immersive exhibition the band released alongside the compilation in 2021. It describes itself as “an upside-down digital/analogue universe” that draws from original artwork and recordings to “commemorate 21 years of Kid A and Amnesiac.”
This would align with Radiohead’s recent extracurriculars, as in August the band opened “This Is What You Get,” an exhibition that examined the visual identity of the band throughout its existence. It’s running at the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford until Jan. 11, 2026.
Surprise! The 2026 Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival lineup is out and it’s topped by pop stars.
Sabrina Carpenter, Justin Bieber and Karol G will headline the twin weekends of the festival, which return to the Empire Polo Club in Indio April 10-12 and 17-19, 2026.
Other notable acts include elder statesmen such as Iggy Pop, David Byrne and Devo, rock acts including the Strokes and Turnstile, pop star Addison Rae, Laufey, EDM superstar Kaskade, rapper Young Thug and dozens of others.
The bottom of the festival poster also announces something called “The Bunker Debut of Radiohead Kid A Mnesia.” The British rock band Radiohead recently announced European tour dates.
Also at the bottom of the poster, which has become a place for the festival to announce special engagements, is the world premiere of Anyma’s “Æden.” Anyma, the project of producer and artist Matteo Miller, was the first electronic act to headline Sphere in Las Vegas.
At the top of the poster for Friday, listed between the XX and Disclosure is an act called Nine Inch Noize. German producer Boys Noize joined Trent Reznor and Nine Inch Nails’ on the band’s recent tour and also labeled a live collaboration as Nine Inch Noize System on Instagram.
Since its inception in 1999, Coachella has included a diverse range of musical styles, but also less-than-expected acts, such as the colorful monsters of the show Yo Gabba Gabba! and the L.A. Phil earlier this year. For 2026, another beloved L.A. institution is on the bill: Bob Baker Marionettes, of the Bob Baker Marionette Theater, are listed on the poster for Friday.
Coachella has given a spotlight to some of the world’s biggest K-pop and J-pop acts in recent years and in 2026 acts including Bigbang, Fujii Kaze, and Taemin.
The 2026 edition is also a makeup show of sorts for FKA Twigs, who had to cancel her 2025 North American tour, including stops at Coachella, due to visa issues. Promoter Goldenvoice has traditionally released the festival’s lineup in January, three months or so before the event.
Tickets start at $649 for a three-day pass for Weekend 1 and $549 for Weekend 2. (If you buy a 4-pack of tickets you can save $10 per pass.) VIP passes for Weekend 1 start at $1,299 and are $1,199 for Weekend 2.
New for 2026 is a group camping option, which allows people who want to camp together to arrive at different times. There’s a 10-spot minimum and a 20-spot maximum. Each camping spot is $160.
Passes go on sale to the general public at 11 a.m. Pacific on Friday, Sept. 19 at www.coachella.com.
PALM SPRINGS — Along the main thoroughfare of this desert city, just a block from a vibey, adults-only hotel and a gastropub serving boozy brunches, a new apartment building with a butterfly-wing roof inspired by Midcentury Modern design is nearing completion.
The property, called Aloe Palm Canyon, features 71 one-bedroom units with tall windows offering natural light and sweeping views of Mt. San Jacinto, plus a fitness room and laundry facilities. When it opens this summer, serving lower-income seniors over age 55, the complex will become the latest addition to the Coachella Valley’s growing stock of affordable housing.
A decade ago, this desert region known for its winter resorts, lush golf courses and annual music festivals produced just 38 units of affordable housing a year, while the low-wage workers powering the valley’s lavish service industry faced soaring housing costs and food insecurity. Fast-forward to this year, and affordable housing units are planned or under construction in all nine Coachella Valley cities, including the most exclusive, and in many unincorporated areas.
Aloe Palm Canyon, geared toward low-income seniors, will feature affordable one-bedroom units with sweeping views of Mt. San Jacinto and an airy communal room.
At least some of that momentum can be credited to a Palm Desert-based nonprofit organization that in 2018 set an ambitious 10-year goal to reduce rent burden — or the number of people spending more than 30% of their income on housing costs — by nearly a third. Lift to Rise aimed to do this by adding nearly 10,000 units of affordable housing in the Coachella Valley by 2028.
Some seven years into its decade-long push, Lift to Rise appears well on its way to that goal. It counts 9,300 affordable housing units in the pipeline as of April. That figure includes those in the early planning stages, as well as 940 units starting construction soon, 990 under construction and 1,405 affordable housing units completed.
It is notable progress in a state where the dire shortage of low-income housing can seem an intractable problem. Now, some officials and elected leaders say Lift to Rise may offer a path forward that could be replicated in other regions.
The Coachella Valley, in Riverside County, stretches from the San Gorgonio Pass to the north shores of the Salton Sea. Its major employment sectors — leisure and hospitality, retail and agriculture — generally produce the area’s lowest-paid jobs, putting the cost of renting or buying a home out of reach for many.
Coastal areas have a reputation for being unaffordable, but the desert region has a higher share of rent-burdened households than Riverside County as a whole, the state or nation, according to American Community Survey data compiled by Lift to Rise.
Addressing the situation comes with its own complications.
Lift to Rise helped create a loan program to smooth the flow of funding for affordable housing, including the Vista Sunrise II complex in Palm Springs.
Many California housing and climate policies tend to support the development of affordable housing in dense, pedestrian-friendly communities with easy access to public transportation, said Ian Gabriel, Lift to Rise’s director of collective impact. Such adaptations are difficult in the Coachella Valley, where suburban-style neighborhoods, limited public transportation and months of triple-digit heat have lent themselves to a car-centric lifestyle, he said.
And although state policy — and funding priorities — often focus on alleviating chronic homelessness in major urban areas, he said, the Coachella Valley also needs housing for low-wage farmworkers who aren’t homeless but are living in dilapidated, financially untenable conditions.
All of that makes it harder for the region to compete for state affordable housing dollars, he said.
“We’re not saying other folks in coastal areas shouldn’t be getting money,” Gabriel said. “We’re saying we need more equitable distribution and a path forward that isn’t just a one-size-fits-all, because it’s not fitting for our region.”
Lift to Rise has built a network of more than 70 people and organizations — among them residents, county officials, funders and developers — with a shared goal of increasing affordable housing in the region.
One of the group’s early steps was to create an affordable housing portal to track developments in the pipeline and, maybe more important, determine what factors are holding projects back.
In assessing those bottlenecks, Lift to Rise identified a need for stronger advocacy, both at the local level and in the policy sphere. So it has launched an effort, Committees by Cities, to help residents develop leadership skills and advocate for affordable housing at public meetings.
The Vista Sunrise II complex, located on a DAP Health campus, offers affordable housing for low-income people who are HIV-positive or living with AIDS.
Modesta Rodriguez is a member of the Indio chapter, attending city council hearings and passing along information to her neighbors. Although she and her family have lived in a development specifically for farmworkers for a decade, she wants to ensure her four children — the oldest of whom graduated from San Diego State University this month — can find housing in the eastern Coachella Valley.
“It’s not as if they are going to begin their careers making a lot of money,” Rodriguez said, seated in the kitchen of her tidy three-bedroom apartment. “For us, these projects are very good, because I know at least they will help my daughter.”
Mike Walsh, assistant director of Riverside County’s Department of Housing and Workforce Solutions, said Lift to Rise and its army of advocates should get credit for helping to change the narrative around affordable housing in the Coachella Valley.
“When affordable housing projects pop up, they have a built-in network to turn folks out and support those projects, where in the rest of the county, there’s not that same sort of ease of turning people out,” Walsh said.
Walsh recalled that a teacher, a farmworker and a social worker — essentially a cross-section of local residents — spoke up at a recent county meeting. “It drowns out NIMBYism,” said Heidi Marshall, director of the county’s housing and workforce solutions department.
Lift to Rise aims to spark wider conversations about the need for affordable housing in the Coachella Valley with billboards along the 10 Freeway.
The organization aims to spark wider conversation about the fight for affordable housing and living wages through eye-catching billboards that the nonprofit buys along the 10 Freeway during spring music festival season in the Coachella Valley. “Born too late to afford a home, and too early to colonize Mars” is among their slogans.
And when an analysis revealed low-income housing developers were having trouble getting predevelopment financing, Lift to Rise set out to create a funding mechanism to help get projects off the ground.
The result is a revolving loan fund known as We Lift: The Coachella Valley’s Housing Catalyst Fund. The $44-million fund, supported by public and philanthropic dollars, is intended to bridge financing gaps and accelerate development.
Solar panels rise above a parking lot at the Aloe Palm Canyon complex in Palm Springs.
The developer behind the Aloe Palm Canyon complex in Palm Springs, the West Hollywood Community Housing Corp., benefited from three loans from the fund totaling more than $11 million. It has already paid back two of those loans.
“I don’t know any other regions in California that are doing this at this level of support,” Anup Nitin Patel, the corporation’s director of real estate development, said during a toasty morning tour of the construction site.
Another Palm Springs project — a partnership between the Coachella Valley Housing Coalition and DAP Health, a local healthcare provider — received a $750,000 predevelopment loan that was repaid at the start of construction.
“It’s going to be something I can sustain, a game-changer for me,” Sean Johnson said of his new home in DAP Health’s Vista Sunrise II development in Palm Springs.
Last June, Sean Johnson moved into that development, which is for low-income people who are HIV-positive or living with AIDS. After struggling to find stable housing, he said it’s a relief to pay a monthly rent of $718 for a studio apartment.
“It’s going to be something I can sustain, a game-changer for me,” he said.
Lift to Rise is seeking a $20-million allocation in the next state budget to scale up its work. As part of that request, it is asking for a one-time $10-million investment into the Catalyst Fund to expand lending capacity across Riverside County.
Sen. Steve Padilla (D-Chula Vista) and Sen. Rosilicie Ochoa Bogh (R-Yucaipa) submitted a budget request on the organization’s behalf. Padilla said it’s a worthy expenditure, especially as California faces a multibillion-dollar budget shortfall.
In lean budget situations, Padilla said, the state should focus its investments on programs that are having meaningful impact and have the data to prove it.
“In tough budget times, you have to be very strategic,” he said. “And this is a good example of [an effort] that’s proven some pretty impressive results.”
This article is part of The Times’ equity reporting initiative,funded by the James Irvine Foundation, exploring the challenges facing low-income workers and the efforts being made to addressCalifornia’s economic divide.
