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99% Invisible
99% Invisible

U Is for Urbanism

December 02, 2025 • 38m

Summary

⏱️ 8 min read

Overview

This episode explores how Sesame Street has quietly educated generations of children about good urbanism and healthy neighborhoods for over 50 years. Created during New York City's troubled 1960s, the show deliberately portrayed a functional, diverse urban community that embodies urbanist Jane Jacobs' principles for vibrant neighborhoods. The episode examines how the iconic children's show became a blueprint for urban design while facing ongoing threats to its existence.

The Origins of Sesame Street's Urban Vision

Joan Ganz Cooney, a media executive and documentary filmmaker, recognized television's potential to address educational inequality in 1960s America. She worked with writer-producer John Stone to create Sesame Street, drawing inspiration from an unlikely source: struggling New York City neighborhoods during a time of urban crisis and white flight. Stone's epiphany came from watching a "Give a Damn" public service campaign showing children in Harlem gutters, leading him to set the show on an authentic city street.

  • Joan Ganz Cooney viewed television as a tool to effect change and address inequalities in early childhood education
  • More households had televisions than bathtubs, telephones, or daily newspapers, making TV an accessible education tool
  • John Stone drew inspiration from New York City during its troubled 1960s period of crime and social unrest
  • The 'Give a Damn' campaign showing children in Harlem inspired Stone to set Sesame Street on an authentic city block
  • The set designers deliberately included rough details like trash, wheat paste posters, and soot to reflect real urban environments
" More households have televisions than bathtubs, telephones, vacuum cleaners, toasters, or a regular daily newspaper. "
" He wanted to create an environment that would look familiar to them and look like home to them. But what's going on is not riots and crime and all this awful stuff. It's this harmonious, integrated, happy little village where people get along. "

Jane Jacobs' Urban Principles on Sesame Street

The episode reveals how Sesame Street embodies the four key principles outlined in Jane Jacobs' influential 1961 book "The Death and Life of Great American Cities." The show's set mirrors Jacobs' blueprint for vibrant neighborhoods through mixed-use spaces, short blocks, old and new buildings coexisting, and dense concentration of people. The very first episode demonstrates Jacobs' concept of the "sidewalk ballet" through spontaneous neighbor interactions.

  • Jane Jacobs championed mixed-use, pedestrian-friendly cities and community-based urban planning in her 1961 book
  • Sesame Street features mixed-use spaces including laundromats, grocery stores, and multifamily buildings
  • The street includes both old buildings like the brownstone and newer structures, reflecting Jacobs' principle of aged buildings
  • The first episode shows Gordon introducing new neighbor Sally to the block, demonstrating the sidewalk ballet concept
  • The sidewalk ballet refers to casual, improvised interactions in public spaces that create community connections
" Sesame Street ends up being this blueprint for a Jane Jacobsian utopia, almost. You have so many different principles that she outlined in her book play out on that actual block. "
" cities have the capability of providing something for everybody, only because and only when they are created by everybody "

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