Insights, perhaps, from a good walk (Inwood, NY)

We're in Inwood now. Many of the people are from either the Dominican Republic or Puerto Rica, and Spanish is spoken in the street. There must be a Russian population as well, as signs in the parks are also in Cyrillic.

It's much greener up here and you can feel the past. Around here, on either the Harlem River ship canal, or a waterway with the great name of Spuyten Duyvil, the Brits' Hessian allies landed when they were trying to force the American colonial forces to flee into New Jersey or Westchester.

This is still Manhattan, but Battery Park is 14 miles away. If you walk down Broadway the entire length, you can be overwhelmed by the miles and miles of apartments, many of a similar size and bulk. I tried to convey a sense of what this felt like, the other day, by saying that as I walked down Broadway mile after mile, it was like being a cartoon character who is walking on the spot while the same scenery revolved behind me. Of course, that's to forget to look at the details and realise that many of the buildings are individually quite unique.

One of the notices in the Inwood Parks tells people not to smoke in the park. As I climbed some steps I saw some people cheerfully defying the ban - the good old lack of concern for authority. Were they Russians saying, 'Mycop!'? But it made me wonder something about the pyschology of the Tea Party. I wonder if the reason they rail so vituperously about rules and regulations is because they were the people who always used to obey the rules - to the letter and cheerlessly and increasingly begrudgingly, and now they're 'angry and they're not going to take it anymore'? It's what makes me think many of them will eventually calm down.