3 Cities Make Affordable Housing Plays to Hold on to Artists
Submitted by Steve on February 12, 2015
From Alexis Stephens at Nextcity:
When the root causes of gentrification are being discussed, artists and arts groups often get caught in the cross fire. But while the arrival of sculptors, mixed-media painters and the like may foreshadow rising rents, there are many artists who struggle to afford city life. Across the country this week, several cities took steps to ease that struggle. In New York, Mayor Bill de Blasio used his State of the City address on Tuesday to highlight his plan to create 1,500 new units of affordable housing for artists by 2024.
This move will bolster New York in its aim to remain the cultural capital of the country. (In December, the executive director of Brooklyn’s Galapagos Art Space announced a relocation to Detroit, saying, “New York City has simply become too expensive for us to be able to function as an art space.”)