I Have Seen the Light
Posted by: Sundeviljeff
December 3, 2007
Driving home from IKEA, along I-10 in South Tempe, this past Saturday I was struck by an amazing sight. It was one of those “I wish I had a camera” moments, but doing 75 amid five lanes of freeway traffic, you can understand why I preferred to take a mental picture instead. There is a stretch of highway that affords an unobstructed view of what I’m about to describe. To the left was Downtown Phoenix, shrouded in the steel grey grips of the Valley’s first winter storm. To the right, literally bathed in brilliant beams of sunshine, breaking through the mist was Downtown Tempe. As if stretching out to meet those sunrays halfway were the tall buildings that are transforming the Tempe skyline. I occurred to me at that point that Tempe is literally and figuratively rising to the occasion. There was Downtown Phoenix, more or less as it has looked for the past 10 years — languid and lifeless. And glowing in the promise of what is being built, was Tempe; fresh, new and gleaming with excitement. Much is happening in Downtown Tempe. Much that will spread more than a little sunshine to its neighbors.
