What happened to Sesame Street

If you've watched recent episodes of Sesame Street lately, I'm sure you've noticed what many of us have seen and bemoaned. The Street has changed.

The humans have gotten older. After all, some of them have been at this for 40 years! Some muppets have changed their voices slightly, or have been given cosmetic changes. This always happens.

But the biggest change might be the street itself. When we were little, it was very much an inner-city street. The set looked a bit grubby. Often times, there would be bags of trash around--not just at Oscar's, but on the other side of 123 Sesame Street. The overall effect was more gritty.

But now the set has been cleaned up. The dinginess is gone. Now it looks clean enough that you could eat off the ground. At first it used to trouble me. But today I realized for the first time that this is the same thing that's happening in my neighbourhood.

Gentrification.