The City sleeps -but not 'tell after it's taken all it can from the cool of night. Seafront outdoor cafés feature valet double-parking -for those awake at 3 am with the munchies; couples stroll, kids raise ruckus chasing ball, mid-night moon-lit barbeques glimmer, and some where -here- child street vendors take a moment out for play -without laying down their burden of balloons and cotton-candy. That they can do this -set aside what it means to toil long after the sun has gone to sleep and be children- is a necessary ability, here, in a city where ideological violence might burst unheralded into flame before fading back into the dark. A city where, despite the disparity and differences of its 12 million inhabitants, we manage to get along well enough to feel safe waking the streets at night -and play.
