It’s an old story, but let’s hear it again: Up go the rents, out go the artists. A new report from the Research Center for Arts and Culture at Columbia's Teachers College makes the case that New York real estate values are driving artists to lower-cost cities and that the city’s cultural capital is endangered, according to an article in today's Sun.
And they're really just touching on visual artists here. The artists interviewed were between the ages of 62 and 97. I moved here when I was 23, lucked my way into a rent-stabilized roommate situation in the East Village which skyrocketed (but was still "a deal") when my lease-holding roommate moved out. That apartment today, a 3-BR on Avenue C, which rented for about $1750 in 1997, rents at over $3000. And yes, we had a mouse problem when they were gutting the storefront last year to make room for a bank. Now that neighborhood is filled with places like this.
I wonder if there are kids moving here today the way I did-- with less than $1000 to my name (like, In The Whole World-- no secret savings accounts or parental stipends), but naïve enough to figure that it could work. Nearly ten years later, rents have skyrocketed beyond all semblance of control, but most acting jobs still don't pay enough to actually live here, nevermind comfortably. The theaters I worked in, bundled in my winter coat because the window got smashed or the proprietor didn't turn on the heat, have all gone or are going condo or have been replaced by bars or restaurants. Luckily, some have found new homes (Collective Unconscious) and new places created in Williamsburg (the Brick, the Battle Ranch) and Long Island City (the Chocolate Factory), to name a few.
An open letter to people who have to ask this question: Yes. We need affordable housing. Even if we are white, college-educated kids who come from what used to be the middle class. We are your waiters. We are your bartenders. We are your office temps who shut down Excel when you don't know how. And unless you plan to really jack up how much you tip, save us a place to live.
Really. Are the tourists going to want to keep coming to visit to see all the Hedge Fund Managers in the city?
I'm telling ya, Berlin is looking really good right now. Where did I put those German language tapes?
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