I took a short walk in Denver's Washington Park yesterday afternoon. It was 14 degrees outside, and so there were very few people out and about. I took a photograph of the Washington Park Boathouse from the far side of a frozen Smith Lake, and when I turned around, noticed the guy sitting on a bench in the photograph above. I can see taking a short walk when it is 14 degrees, but definitely not sitting down on a bench and hanging out. The man had a bicycle next to him, and so perhaps he was just catching his breath. Hopefully he wasn't homeless, which is a horrible thing to be in these temperatures. There are cold weather shelters people can go to here in Denver when it gets this cold, and the libraries allow the homeless to hang out there during the hours they are open, but some people prefer to stay outside. The other day I drove past someone camping out on the freeway overpass on East Evans Avenue in equally miserable weather conditions, and wondered how they could possibly stand it. Mike Johnson, Denver's new mayor, has made housing the homeless a priority, and has achieved many of his goals in a short period of time. But they can't force people to go inside. If I was in a similar situation, I would head to San Diego immediately.
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