Bravo to October. We know fall technically started Sept. 22, but with highs of 108 degrees still turning our campus into a mass of sweaty bodies, we’re welcoming Tuesday’s predicted high of 88 as the first day of fall. (Call us skeptics, but we’ll believe it when we see it.) Although October unfortunately means a month of midterms, it also marks the revival of street life around Tempe. From Tempe Town Lake’s Oktoberfest to the return of inventive bike riders of Tour de Fat, we’ll barely miss our beloved lake, which might just be refilled before schedule and in time for the November Ironman. Things are certainly looking up for the melted souls in the Valley.
Boo to a 3-year high in campus robberies and assaults. The annual release of ASU Police’s tally of 2009’s crimes showed that not only were there 500 liquor-related arrests, down by 43 from 2008, but Tempe accounted for 20 of the 22 aggravated assault arrests by campus police. Also up were robberies, with nine robberies shared between the Tempe and Downtown campus — three more than last year. While these numbers seem small compared to the number of students enrolled at the University, the fact that such people exist around campus is a disappointment. Luckily, the ASU Police have been there to arrest offenders, even if they insist on doing it on their Segways.
Bravo to the start of NBA training camps. The sports world is only three weeks away from its busiest time of the year and the NBA is approaching one of its most interesting seasons in recent memory. Stars have moved and regular powerhouses are being threatened. Also, for the first time in months, NBA TV is interesting again, and thankfully no longer has to show replays from the 2010 Western Conference Finals.
Boo to the phone sex mistake on the box of Chad Ochocinco’s new cereal. The Cincinnati Bengals wide receiver’s cereal box featured a phone number meant to connect callers to Feed the Children, a nonprofit relief organization that delivers food, medicine, clothing and other necessities to individuals who lack essentials. But instead, a typo on the box led phone callers to a phone-sex line, far from their original intention, and far from reaching the stomachs of hungry children — only the mouths of seductive-sounding women.
Bravo to Phoenix for reaching out to the homeless on its streets with programs like the Street Crime Reduction Program, which attempts to help place homeless in housing. While only 57 percent of Arizona’s homeless are able to find a shelter at night in various city shelters, the remaining 6,311 people look to the streets. Thankfully, there are citizens and churches throughout Phoenix willing to pick up the slack and feed and provide basic essentials and open arms to our homeless population while they live out a lifestyle that may never see a permanent solution.
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