The key to Tempe's excellent quality of life is its residents and their active participation in maintaining healthy neighborhoods. Tempe enjoys strong participation in its 26 citizen advisory boards, commissions and committees. In addition, Tempe has more than 140 active neighborhood and homeowner associations. Tempe offers challenging places to work, a myriad of opportunities for fun, the best in entertainment and dining, great shopping and an unparalleled southwestern lifestyle.

Tempe is the sports capitol of the state making it the place to catch a good game. ASU Sun Devil Stadium is home to the ASU Sun Devils and the NFL's Phoenix Cardinals, as well as the setting for the annual Fiesta Bowl. Spectator sports fans can also catch the Anaheim Angels in spring training at Tempe's own Diablo Stadium.

More than 1,100 acres are devoted to 43 parks and similar facilities. Kiwanis Community Park is the highlight of the city's park system. Comprised of 125-acres, Kiwanis offers various recreational opportunities, including the world's second largest indoor/outdoor wave pool. Tempe has received the National Gold Medal for Excellence in Parks and Recreation for a community in the population range of 100,000 and 250,000. The city also offers a variety of other recreational facilities including numerous golf courses, the Pyle Adult Recreation Center and Tempe Town Lake.

Tempe's downtown has become a regional entertainment center providing restaurants, boutiques, a multi-screen cinema, a nationally known arts festival and is home to Arizona State University. ASU's 3,000-seat Gammage Auditorium, designed by Frank Lloyd Wright, offers ballet, opera, musicals and plays. Other facilities include the Tempe Public Library, the Tempe Historical Museum and the Tempe Municipal Arts Commission.

The city is working to transform the dry Salt River bed into a town lake with a variety of recreational and commercial development planned in the future. This project will add 850 acres of developable land in Tempe and offers long-term cultural, recreational and fiscal benefits for residents. It is expected to house local symphony, chorale and theatre troupes, including the internationally renowned company for children’s theater, Childsplay.

As the city's principal business district, Old Town Tempe is also the premier cultural, shopping, and entertainment area with many of its shops, boutiques, and restaurants housed in restored structures built around the turn of the century. Old Town Tempe's Spring and Fall Festival of the Arts each draws nearly 200,000 people, who browse the myriad of arts and crafts booths, and enjoy the variety of foods plus the free, live entertainment. Old Town Tempe is also the place for laughs with the Improv, an offshoot of New York's famed Comedy Club.

Thirty-two elementary schools, eight middle schools and five high schools serve the educational needs of Tempe. Tempe and Kyrene High School students have earned a reputation for regularly excelling in state and national averages in all areas of college entrance exam results.

The nation’s fifth largest university, Arizona State University (ASU), sets Tempe’s educational standards. ASU lies on 700 acres in the center of Tempe with an enrollment of 43,000 students. The university's 12 colleges offer baccalaureate degree programs in 92 majors, master's degrees in 71 majors, and five doctorate programs.

Tempe offers a premier business environment and a merit city that is full of energy. The city is committed to the attraction and retention of quality development. The City Council and staff have a long history of successfully completing complicated projects through the use of great integrity and attention to detail. Tempe's budget remains in solid fiscal shape with a balanced budget, solid General Fund, and an "AA+" rating on Wall Street.

Sites for office space, retail, and manufacturing are plentiful. Many locations provide multi-use business park development or campus-style corporate headquarter sites with close airport and freeway access. Tempe currently houses fifty percent of the East Valley's prime office space offering the community a strong base of approximately 225 business firms in the industrial and office parks. Twenty-one percent of all "high tech" companies in Arizona are located in Tempe. And Tempe is home to a national bank's second largest credit card processing center, as well as to an international airline.

The city of Tempe was founded by Charles Trumbull Hayden, whose settlement is known as Hayden's Ferry. Following his discovery, Tempe became the trade center for the south side of the Salt River Valley. The first settlers helped construct the first two irrigation canals, the Kirkland-McKinney Ditch and the San Francisco Canal, and started small farms to the east and west of Hayden's Ferry. As a result of the rapid growth of Hayden's Ferry and San Pablo, a community was quickly formed.

In 1879, the city was renamed Tempe by Lord Darrell Duppa, an Englishman who helped establish the Phoenix settlement. The area, the sight of the butte, wide river, and the nearby expanse of green fields reminded him of a passage he had once read about the Vale of Tempe in ancient Greece. It was decided in 1885 that Tempe would be the site for the Territorial Normal School that trained teachers to work in schools throughout Arizona. The Maricopa and Phoenix Railroad, built shortly after, crossed the Salt River at Tempe, linking the town to the nation's growing transportation system. In addition, The Tempe Land and Improvement Company was formed to sell lots in the booming town. Tempe became one of the most important business and shipping centers for the surrounding agricultural area.

Tempe started out as a small agricultural community, but by 1960 the last of the local farms were quickly vanishing as Tempe grew to become a large modern city. The town's small college had also grown, and in 1958 the institution was renamed Arizona State University.