A visitor wrote us that “every Sunday there is a gathering of kind brothers and sisters in Tempe at the Sail Inn. We have been getting together for about two years for an afternoon of kind vibes with the incredible Grateful Dead cover band Noodles. They play from 4:20 till? If you’re ever in town, we would love to have you join us. Hope to see ya sometime.”
UPDATE: Noodles now plays at Nita’s Hideaway, also in Tempe on Sundays starting at 7:00pm.
Tempe is alright…its your typical college town, with a lot of hip kids. On MIll Avenue is where all the cool stuff happens: go down there on Friday night, and check out Hippie Gypsy, a pretty kickin store and head shop. Theres always live music on the street and lots of cool people bartering and trading,
No offense to those who think otherwise, but Tempe sucks. It lacks every essential component a good college town has (a good greasy spoon, a thriving locally owned business strip, and an air of tolerance, wonder and questioning about the world or even what’s down their own street). They wouldn’t recognize a picketing sign if you fanned them with it. Instead, Tempe is as homogeneized as a new suburb, with its last few locally owned businesses gasping under higher rents and a city council well-versed at spreading the word of brotherly convention. The downtown sparkles with the newness of one long coporate strip (and a few sports bars that attract the oh-so-liberal ASU jock).
To call Tempe a wanna-be college town is a compliment for this simple reason: whatever thin thread of liberalism that exists here was long ago squashed and replaced with condo-dwelling, golf-loving, saggy brown skinned rich folk who seem to own the very air we breathe. They lack environmental foresight…they lack a conscience…they lack a mind of their own. That simple. But it’s not Tempe’s fault; the whole valley sucks in the same way. I would only recommend it to a capitalistic drone.
First hung out on Mill in Tempe in 93 and it blew my mind. I had just come down from the nonstop rain and clouds of Seattle and I was so refreshed to hit Mill at night in shorts and a tee and to feel the warm wind of the desert. There were travelers everywhere – even hanging out inside Coffee Plantation twisting hemp. I had to head back North in June due to the heat but I vowed to return soon. I didnt’ make it back there until the Fall of 96 and I was even more glad to find the streets full of kind folk lingering on the street and in Tempe beach park. This seemed to be the perfect Winter resting place for North American travelers. I sold my jewlery easily on the streets and quickly joined a community of beautiful people who were living as I was. Those were the days when the kids still hugged each other and really meant it. I lived out of my van without being harrased and opened my little rolling home to any of the kids who needed a floor to sleep on. I also met a sweet 17 year old local hippie mama there at Java Road coffee shop one night and we have been living happily together since. The persecution began sometime in 1998 and since then it has been an ugly scene. The previous reviewer described it perfectly. Tempe could still be a good scene (October – April) if the kids all got together and rented houses in the same neighborhood and learned their rights as Americans to gather and assemble in public places. The authorities think that we are just stupid dippie dopie hippies who are easy to push around. If we can link together and really start to love one another again and stand up for our legal rights against the ever growing police state (especially in Tempe) I know that we can take back our stomping grounds in the cities and jump start the hip revolution. “Find yourself a city to live in”
One word to describe Tempe . . . GENERIC!!
im sorry to say that tempe is nothing but a link of “chains” from Chillies, to Borders, to Harkins movie theater, to worst of all uggghhhh, starbucks. all the cool mom and pop shops have been pushed out by urban redevelopement. Kids cant afford to eat or drink any where, the arizonians are snoots, the bike cops and mounties are quite harsh to kids as well. and guess what, Mill Ave doesnt even have a dinner!! i live about two blocks off of 5th st and Mill, so im right in the downtown, and even though iv only lived here for a year, i can tell you this place is getting to be no better than scottsdale, rep wise. Oh Yea, i almost forgot! the Coffee Plantation, if you walk past it, it looks like a cool spot, BUT, The Coffee Plantation has BANNED long time paying customers, for the simple reason of personal hygene!!! basicly saying NO HIPPIES ALLOWED! The whole area is so focused on keeping up apperances to attract dollars from the out of state college students at ASU (adjacent to downtown btw) the boys in blue will hassel out of town anyone they look at as undesirable to the town vibe(starbucks and sushi bars). soooooo, KIDS BEWARE!! TEMPE IS NOT HIPPIE FRIENDLY!! *dont be fooled by the weak ass, so called head shop, Hippie gypsy. its just like tempe, fully homogenized, and sterile. a bring your parents along sort of place.
so if your a young suburban family, or college student from a wealthy family, than tempe is built just for you!! if however you would be called a hippie by a total stranger,,, just head south for bisbee.
Hey all im from tempe and venture down to Mill Ave quite often. And yes it does suck and yes it is just a bunch of rich kids in there abercrombie drinking starbucks and talking about how much cooler they are. BUT if you can find it in you to look past these people tempe aint all that bad and neither is Mill Ave for that matter. The thing is you just need to know where to go. Like for instance hippie gypsy is ok if your looking for some clothes but if you want to go to more a “head shop” then go to TRAILS its like one block north of hippie gypsy and about a half block west. Also there is a drum circle that goes on like every saturday night kind of behind the old movie theater. And o yeah the old movie theater rocks, they play old movies and more of the independent films every friday and saturday night. So yes tempe is predominately one large corporation but if you look past that its alright, so give a chance and find out for yourself. And sorry if my spelling sucks. haha, keep on rockn’ it y’all and maybe ill see you on mill sometime
Whoever is talkin shiz about Tempe is pretty wrong. Yes there is new chain resteraunts and stuff but that is what makes the city grow. there is over 100,000 that move to the valley every year and thats cuz of how nice it is. The school is great if that is what you are gonna do and there is plenty of stuff to do and TONS of places to eat, compared to where im from this is heaven, in my old town there is 10 fast food joints that are in every town and they suck, here… you can eat somewhere new every meal for a whole year i bet. I see MAYBE 1 cop a day driving through town so there isnt too much to worry about with them. the worst part of it is the car crashes and murders every day…. its legal to carry a gun on you if u are 21 so its pretty lax. and theres plenty to do here so dont listen to the haters. this place is awesome
whats up every 1
this is {anti matter} and im just here to say that on mill ave and 6th
every sat.night im at the drum circle and i would like to see more of the
kind hearted fellowship that i enjoy seeing in my life {ESPECILLY GIRLS}
—ohhh gotta go—its 4:20——–
What’s the racial atmosphere like in Tempe?
tempe is probably the highest on the list of phoenix metro areas to hang out it, but that’s just because the rest are so utterly dull. when i first went down mill avenue on a weekend, i thought, wow, now here’s a place with culture! yeah, that lasted about ten minutes, until i passed chile’s, then abercrombie & fitch, then borders and starbucks and urban outfitters. tempe is the type of place to attract fauxhemians like my sister, who wears peasant tops because it’s the latest style. hippie gypsy is a disgusting chain of stores that market ‘hipness’ the way starbucks markets ‘a coffee house atmosphere’. the only cool place in tempe that i know of is the food co-op, which is just past ash on university, on the right-hand side. other than that, it’s just another preppy college area.
I have lived in Tempe for a few years now to attend ASU and it’s exactly as most have described it.
Horribly generic, but “so much fun” to the people that have never been to a cultured city.
ASU isn’t bad though.
Sail Inn still rules but yeah mill ave turned from a collection of freaks to a totally main-stream scottsdale yuppie bullshit area
Who Here knows DEADLY???
I need to know how to find him & get ahold of him!!!!!!!!!!!
The city council is trying to turn Tempe into Scottsdale yuppieville and they’re winning. They’ve just started construction on a 30-story high rise of expensive condominiums. If Tempe is to be saved from this, the time to act is now.
I miss the Tempe of 15 years ago, when they would close Mill Avenue every Friday night and bands and street performers were everywhere and you could always meet someone new. You could get a stick of incense at the corner and cruise through the Changing Hands bookstore and the cops didn’t hassle people. Tons of mom and pop stores and plenty of new bands played at Long Wongs. Now, all but rare few of the shops are gone, they’ve been replaced by P.F. Changs and Abercrombie and Fitch and some botique that sells overpriced sweatsuits. If you look even remotely hippie the cops accuse you of being a squatter. Tempe has lost its soul to the almighty dollar and it’s a shame. Even the co-op is moving to different digs.
Hi all.
I hang out on mill and the coffee plantation about 1995 I think it was.
Does anyone remember bones, piero, doug, andy, to name a few.
Sorry I dont have last names. 🙁
Tempe is the most uncool place I’ve ever had the misfortune to land in. Anyone who thinks this place is hip hasn’t been anywhere. It’s consumerist, conservative, boring and generic — a cultural desert populated with an overabundance of rich naive brats armed with their daddys’ credit cards. Sure there are a few surly hippies lurking about. But hippies aren’t my idea of culture. Tempe is like the 50’s all over again, with worse music. It’s a total Chachi and Joannie town.