On the Banks of the Salton Sea

The title of this L.A. Times article is "A Dangerous Slum Sprouts in the Desert" and the writer is quite obviously horrified.

"They call it 'Duroville,' a haphazard village of roughly 4,000 people and dozens of unregulated businesses that has sprouted from the desert scrub in just two years. It was named for its founder, Harvey Duro, a husky member of the Torres-Martinez Band of Cahuilla Indians, who said he just may double the size of the place.

Whether anybody can stop him remains to be seen. Duroville sits on sovereign Indian land, beyond the reach of state and local laws. So, although one county official says it is the worst and largest substandard housing development of its kind in the region, there's nothing she can do about it."

(I'm not really sure what's supposed to be more horrifying, that these people are living in substandard conditions, or that there's nothing the state can do to stop them.)