July 28, 2008
Over
the past month or two, the City of Tempe and the Downtown Tempe
Community (Tempe Leadership Class) have been adding the following signs
to the Mill Avenue District. An idea which has proved
successful in other downtown environments, the "Give Change for Change"
campaign maintains that sometimes a "hand out" is not always a "hand
up".
Taken
from the actual signage: "Giving change or food to
panhandlers or homeless people may hurt more than it helps by
encouraging life on the streets and by discouraging people from seeking
the real help that they need." It continues, "If you really
want to help, feed the change for change parking meters mounted to most
of these directory locations instead...". The idea being that the
change you give to the meter will actually go to aid organizations who
help the homeless get off the streets.

Mill Avenue Gives
Change for Change

Signage
in Mill Avenue District
Although
this project will probably not completely solve the problem, it will
certainly go a long way towards helping clean up the streets and we
applaud the Tempe Leadership Class for promoting such an aggressive
campaign.