What an astute observation by Byrne. How many people are out there living in big cities indulging in the mindless pitter patter of going to the office, then the gym at night (or morning), with an occasional strip club visit with the buddies? I can't imagine people doing that and having a fulfilling life. Also, as a resident of New York state I found this bit particularly funny, he knows what he's talking about. I do believe that there is still hope for New York City, it certainly isn't in tatters. That said, it does seem that most of the improvements have a direct impact on the well off and a more marginal impact on those less fortunate (crime rate aside). It will take a real politician, not the likes of Bloomberg or a Bloomberg crony to foster the cultural side of the city. There's still a lot of life to it, but I think the banking and well-off need to be more restrained, or at least not have such a big impact on everything else there....but once people are lured to a place for work, they need more than offices, gyms and strip clubs to really live.
But where will I go? Join the expat hipsters upstate in Hudson?
Keep in mind that NYC conforms to the economic theory that rent control does not in fact benefit those that can best use low cost housing. A lot of rent controlled apartments are rented by people with higher salaries. Additionally, landlords have less incentive to maintain their buildings as there is less competition in prices. Also, this means that new buildings aimed at attracting people that can only afford non-luxury apartments are not profitable for developers. Thus, luxury buildings.I do believe that there is still hope for New York City, it certainly isn't in tatters. That said, it does seem that most of the improvements have a direct impact on the well off and a more marginal impact on those less fortunate (crime rate aside).
Great article, and the comments on the original post at Creative Time Reports are vibrant as well. People there are making the point that even the hipster cities of Portland OR and Austin TX are getting too expensive and cannot expand to meet their new roles. This leads me to my pitch on behalf of an upcoming art city: Los Angeles. Once you've finished laughing, I'll tell you: 1) Rents are lower. Some of the smaller cities within LA County, such as West Hollywood, have rent stabilization. 2) Other basic expenses are also lower. Electric rates are 40% of those in east coast cities. Heat is cheap because you rarely have to use it. Humidity is usually 40% , so you can get away with running fans instead of air conditioners for all but one month of the year (and oddly, that month is late August into September). Fruits and vegetables are cheap because they're grown about two hours away then shipped through here on the way to the rest of the country. 3) There is a lot of loft and art space available in transit-friendly locations. 4) The transit is improving, especially if you don't live on the west side. 5) The art scene is amazing: Art is Shit, another Providence escapee, Lucky Bunny, tons of Retna pieces, lots of galleries... You can live as an artist here and have a taco-laden life.
It's 72F about ten months of the year. What heat? It's like walking around in a dream state -- complete with food trucks. To be fair: I miss being close to Canada. I miss it a lot.
This city doesn't make things anymore. Creativity, of all kinds, is the resource we have to draw on as a city and a country in order to survive. In the recent past, before the 2008 crash, the best and the brightest were lured into the world of finance. Many a bright kid graduating from university knew that they could become fairly wealthy almost instantly if they found employment at a hedge fund or some similar institution. But before the financial sector came to dominate the world, they might have made things: in publishing, manufacturing, television, fashion, you name it. As in many other countries, the lure of easy bucks hoovered this talent and intelligence up – and made it difficult for those other kinds of businesses to attract any of the top talent.
This hits hard. I made the wrong decision.
It's funny that David Byrne writes like he talks. This whole thing is written in short little fragments and questions.
I'm reading his book, How Music Works. It's a great presentation of history, technology, sound, the works.
I was thinking that as I read it, and then began to read it in his voice. In another post today, Rebecca Wolff waxes on the same theme with less thrift:New York City used to be cool, and now it’s not. It’s not at all. It is boring and dismaying and stymied; everything potentially cool in it is overwhelmed and inflated and parodied and sold. You can’t even love the absurdity of it because it’s too painful and we cannot be allowed anymore to callously love, for their absurdity, systems that oppress and impoverish. New York is a giant sinking pile of crap compared to what it used to be.