Old suburban dreams
A small slide show of pictures of Garden City
Placeholder for images from my next trip to Garden City
But there were other aspects of that old pattern: I thought commuting to the city center was natural, and that people above a certain class did not work where they lived. I took for granted residential areas that had uniform populations divided by income and ethnicity and race. I didn't expect to find in the suburbs important cultural or medical facilities, or speciality shopping and ethnic restaurants, or glitter and excitement and themed places. Those were in the city, a railroad ride away. I expected general social order within a fixed framework of civilized arguments and fierce sports rivalries. (As a child I didn't notice the tax fights, the exclusive real estate practices, and the fierce disputes about building new public facilities.)
Then the agricultural land a bit further out Long Island from us began sprouting developments containing only housing. Levittown was not far away, and I remember wondering at its all-at-once newness and visual homogeneity. Such places didn't seem like real towns.