East Village, NYC, has a park--called the Children's Gardening Project, down by 12th street between Ave A & B, that has an atmosphere that is quintessential Village, something quite quaint, and which makes the City what it is. 

Desperately Seeking America is how Dolly would put it. Driving out of NYC, to the small village of Oaks, PA, it became more apparent that this was a country where people were mixed into a polyglot of cultures, traditions and races, and they felt they had made a new whole out of this--because they had learnt how to survive and be rich--but they hadn't really. they were as far removed as Hollywood movies are from life.
The Americans were really just playing with expensive toys--and the novel " White Noise " came to mind. 

Dolly & the Big Apple

Dolly has been plenty times to New York. Each time it feels as if its a beehive. A beehive without really a Queen Bee. Meaning one to the Manor Born. Its also about a feeling where you are desperate to create history. you, meaning the American peoples. History is not happening organicaly here, it is like a class--101, then 102, and so on. They are structuring it--they are making it happen--its not happening to them, so the shadows that act as a binding glue to creating something cohesive is missing. yes, there are no shadows in New York. If there were any they have been cast, recast, typecast, analysed, reanalysed, so that they are no longer shadows, nebulous beings.

What's a civilization without its shadows!!

But its happening in India as well--we too are trying for this monocramatic culture of " chains and brands" the predictability of knowing what you can get, like in each New Jersey strip mall.