Sarah Jessica Parker and her husband, actor Matthew Broderick, keep a running tab on changes to 'their New York'. They mourn the transformation of their neighborhood into a luxe, tree-lined shopping mall. She admits in the interview that this sounds absurd coming from her, that people blame Sex and the City for the ruination of the West Village.

Still, she says, her New York, like that of many New Yorkers, is one that is no longer quite there. When Parker arrived in the city in 1976, New York was bankrupt. However, to her that is the New York she tries to find in her everyday life. “It was the best place in the world. It was literature. It promised everything. And for someone who loved food and smells and stimulation, who was rocked to sleep by the sound of taxis—well, there’s just so much money now, and the city is so affluent, and all the colors, all the shops, the look of a street from block to block is just terribly absent of distinguishing coffee shops, bodegas. All of that stuff that made it possible to live in New York is gone.” Even Brooklyn is “very chic” now, she adds. “I guess there are places in Queens that are affordable.”