I walked for a ways tonight but it was cold. There were lights on a few patios and someone was juggling illuminated balls in the park, a child danced in the darkened tennis court wearing shoes that sparkled pink and blue as he jumped. But I was bored, the little dog tugged a lot. My pedometer called it 3,000 steps. Not nearly enough, according to Facebook and Google. Another 3,000 steps and we might have reached the parking lot where people are bedding down against the night. Organizers have been collecting blankets and socks. Someone on the radio was demanding more porta-potties. No fires are allowed. It's too cold for cockroaches in a tent or rats so that's something. Someone on Twitter said we shouldn't help because it will encourage more people to come to Vancouver and be homeless. And if we give money to people sitting on sleeping bags outside the market maybe they won't bother to get well and find a warm comfy apartment with an electric fireplace and Christmas lights around the window. Maybe they'll just keep on sitting outside the market on their bags, in the cold, enjoying their 'free ride.' There was a shelter set up in our park the other week, but it's gone now. Maybe the BIA asked that person to move on maybe it made people afraid to access the community gardens. I was going to go say hi one day, but there was never anyone around and who knows. There could have been drugs, needles, mental illness, maybe even a machete. Stranger assaults are on the rise, according to Twitter. We walked a ways tonight but it was cold, the night keen and the moon a sharp sliver over the city.