Good morning, Tempe.
🏛️ Three council votes clear in a single session. Tax, speed limits, and a nuisance ordinance. Details.
🎓 Horizon Honors earns national recognition. A Tempe-area campus picks up a national award. Details.
🎶 McKemy spring band and orchestra concert tonight. 5 PM at the academy on College Avenue. Details.
🌃 Tempe Improv comedy, Marquee Theatre concerts, and a Mill Ave book club. What's running downtown this week. Details.
Council clears tax, speed, and nuisance items in one session
Tempe City Council passed three of the spring's most-discussed items in a single session, per the Tempe Tribune.
- Speed limit changes: Adopted. The package surfaced earlier this spring and drew sustained public comment, including a Reddit debate that outlasted the meeting itself.
- A city tax measure: Passed. Specifics in the Tribune writeup.
- Nuisance ordinance: Passed. The Tribune frames it alongside the speed package as a quality-of-life vote.
Council members Doreen Garlid, Nikki Amberg, and Randy Keating are named in the Tribune coverage. The speed item is the one that mattered to most residents, because it touches every arterial commute. The nuisance ordinance is harder to read from the headline alone, and the substance will land in how Tempe PD and city code enforcement apply it on the busier corridors.
What to watch: where new speed signs go up first, and how Tempe PD signals enforcement (grace window vs. immediate citations) over the next few weeks. Read the Tribune.
The week
Monday through Wednesday on the city's calendar.
🎵 McKemy band and orchestra spring concert. Monday 5 PM, McKemy Academy of International Studies, 2250 S College Avenue. Details.
🧘 Teen yoga at Tempe Public Library. Monday 4 PM. Twenty-minute session in the Teen Center, ages 12 to 18. Details.
⚡ Pokemon Hour at Tempe Public Library. Mondays 5 PM. Card-game club for ages 6 to 16, decks provided. Details.
📚 Romance Book Club: Love and Fate. Monday 6:30 PM at the library. Details.
📖 Raising a Reader literacy series begins. Tuesday 10 AM, eight-week early-literacy program with free children's books. Details.
🧱 Level Up LEGO at the library. Tuesday 4 PM, STEAM build for teens. Details.
📕 Bite Size Book Club at Mill's Modern Social. Tuesday 5 PM, short-story discussion. This month: We Can Remember it for You Wholesale. Details.
☕ Coffee, Tea, and Books (virtual). Tuesday 6 PM, discussion of James by Percival Everett. Details.
🐕 PetSmart adoption event. Wednesday 11 AM to 3 PM, 1900 E Rio Salado Parkway. Details.
🦟 Mosquito fogging early Tuesday in central Phoenix. Maricopa County crews fog the Camelback-to-Indian School corridor from midnight to 5 AM Tuesday. Worth knowing if friends west of Tempe ask. Details.
Around Tempe
📚 Library card unlocks more than books. A Tempe Public Library card thread on r/tempe drew dozens of replies surfacing services many residents miss: Hoopla and Libby for ebooks and audiobooks, museum passes, meeting room reservations, language learning, and research databases. A reminder that the card sitting in the wallet does more than checkouts. Read more.
🐰 Lost rabbit found in a Tempe yard. A neighbor posted a photo of a sweet domestic rabbit nibbling grass over the weekend. The poster has since connected with a local rabbit rescue. If a family is missing a pet bunny in central Tempe, the original post has details. Read more.
🚗 Emissions testing primer for new arrivals. New-to-Tempe residents registering a vehicle need to clear an emissions check at a state station. The thread on r/tempe is a useful walk-through for how to read OBD codes and what flags a fail before the official appointment. Read more.
🎹 Tempe parents looking for piano teachers. A parent posted on r/tempe asking for private piano instructor referrals for kids in the Tempe and Ahwatukee area. If you work with a good teacher, the thread is taking recommendations. Read more.
🎓 ASU and Mill Avenue
What's running downtown and along the campus edge.
🎤 Tempe Improv on Mill. The downtown comedy theater books touring headliners with food and drink service. A reliable Tuesday or Wednesday option when the weekend feels far. Details.
🍺 Hundred Mile Brewing events. The downtown brewery rotates a steady calendar of Sunday social events, including Summer Fest Sundays and Puppy Pilates. A low-key plan generator if the week feels overscheduled. Details.
🎸 Marquee Theatre concert week. The 150-shows-a-year venue near Town Lake books touring music acts most nights. Check the calendar for who's in this week. Details.
From the schools
🏆 Horizon Honors picks up national recognition. The campus earned recognition from the National Institute for Excellence in Teaching. Faculty members Alison Fisher, Klecka, and Lasson are named in the Tempe Tribune coverage. Read more.
🎼 McKemy spring band and orchestra concert. Monday 5 PM at McKemy Academy of International Studies, 2250 S College Avenue. A Tempe Elementary School District event for student musicians and their families. Details.
Around the Valley
A few picks worth crossing town for this week.
💻 Master Boot Record at The Rosetta Room. Tuesday 7 PM in Mesa. The closest valley show on the calendar this week if Tempe wants a quick weeknight night out. Details.
🏀 Phoenix Mercury vs. Toronto Tempo. Tuesday 7 PM at Mortgage Matchup Center in Phoenix. A WNBA matchup against Toronto, about twenty minutes up I-10 from Tempe. Details.
⚾ Diamondbacks vs. Giants. Monday 6:40 PM at Chase Field. The classic NL West rivalry, a short drive up the I-10. Details.
🎸 Mac McAnally at MIM. Tuesday 7 PM at the Musical Instrument Museum Music Theater in Phoenix. A small room for a country singer-songwriter. Details.
That's Monday. Thursday brings the weekend lookahead.