Cost of Living in NYC Drives Out Artists — Could Dallas Benefit?

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You think of SoHo and anything south as where it all began with artists in New York City, where they all live as they did years ago before it cost more than an arm, a leg, your first-born child and a bedbug-sniffing dog 24/7 to live in Manhattan. But guess what: artists now think NYC is too costly. A survey of 1,000 artists, conducted in 2009 by the New York Foundation for the Arts, shows that 43% of artists, like the rest of us, expect our income to drop — by 26% to 50% over the next six months. More than ten percent feel they need to flee New York City because they cannot afford living there. And here’s a wake-up call: artists fresh out of art schools around the country are not choosing to live in New York City. Instead, they are going to budding art communities in places like Detroit,  Cleveland and Houston.

Candy Evans

Candy Evans

13 Comments

  1. Karen Eubank/Eubank Staging & Redesign on November 19, 2010 at 9:19 am

    I'm not surprised but the real news is that Dallas artists are actually selling their long held studios in the design district to, you guessed it, designers. There was a time when Dallas artists and photographers populated Deep Ellum. It was a great scene back then. Clubs were popping up and shops were moving in and guess what? Rents went up and artists moved out…. to the design district and down off Industrial Blvd. Now look what is happening in our design district. It's become very gentrified. Everyone goes there. Now the artists and photographers are leaving and selling at a nice profit to shops and designers. You know when Shannon Wynne puts his stamp of approval on an area by opening a bar or restaurant that the artists can no longer afford it. However Dallas is a big place and there always seems to be an area where our artists can afford to unroll their canvas! Artists move into an area, make it "cool" then are forced out because everyone wants to be in a "cool" area. Perhaps we need a little rent control for our local artists that will keep those neighborhoods eclectic and decidedly "cool"!

    Karen Eubank
    EubankStaging & Redesign
    http://www.eubankstaging.com



  2. Karen Eubank/Eubank Staging & Redesign on November 19, 2010 at 9:19 am

    I'm not surprised but the real news is that Dallas artists are actually selling their long held studios in the design district to, you guessed it, designers. There was a time when Dallas artists and photographers populated Deep Ellum. It was a great scene back then. Clubs were popping up and shops were moving in and guess what? Rents went up and artists moved out…. to the design district and down off Industrial Blvd. Now look what is happening in our design district. It's become very gentrified. Everyone goes there. Now the artists and photographers are leaving and selling at a nice profit to shops and designers. You know when Shannon Wynne puts his stamp of approval on an area by opening a bar or restaurant that the artists can no longer afford it. However Dallas is a big place and there always seems to be an area where our artists can afford to unroll their canvas! Artists move into an area, make it "cool" then are forced out because everyone wants to be in a "cool" area. Perhaps we need a little rent control for our local artists that will keep those neighborhoods eclectic and decidedly "cool"!

    Karen Eubank
    EubankStaging & Redesign
    http://www.eubankstaging.com



  3. Candy Evans on November 19, 2010 at 11:12 am

    I know, I guess that's the way the neighborhood change starts!



  4. Candy Evans on November 19, 2010 at 11:12 am

    I know, I guess that's the way the neighborhood change starts!



  5. […] estate blogger Candy Evans recently riffed on her Second Shelters site about a possible exodus of New York artists to cheaper cities. She […]



  6. […] estate blogger Candy Evans recently riffed on her Second Shelters site about a possible exodus of New York artists to cheaper cities. She […]



  7. […] that post about it being too darn expensive for starving artists to live in NYC, so they are moving to Berlin and, well we’d hope, here to Dallas because our […]



  8. […] that post about it being too darn expensive for starving artists to live in NYC, so they are moving to Berlin and, well we’d hope, here to Dallas because our […]



  9. Austin Scott Brooks on November 29, 2010 at 5:13 pm

    It's sad to hear that artists don't think they can maintain a piece of nyc real estate. It's the city of dreams, you've just got to tough it out..It might seem crazy to live in a little run down studio but hard work could lead you out to that beautiful luxury highrise manhattan apartments!



  10. Austin Scott Brooks on November 29, 2010 at 5:13 pm

    It's sad to hear that artists don't think they can maintain a piece of nyc real estate. It's the city of dreams, you've just got to tough it out..It might seem crazy to live in a little run down studio but hard work could lead you out to that beautiful luxury highrise manhattan apartments!



  11. Heather on January 8, 2011 at 11:48 pm

    What they're doing now is just a national version of what they did before. Greenwich Village and Soho used to be run down industrial areas, so the rent was cheap and the artists moved in. When the rents went up, the artists went elsewhere. Now, there are no more potential artist's enclaves in New York do they're moving to cities like Detroit and Cleveland, which have been devastated by the loss of manufacturing jobs and the housing crisis. It's pretty much what they were doing before on a larger scale. In a city where rent is over $1000 a month for a closet, you'd have to work 60 hours a week just to pay the bills. Doesn't leave much time for art, does it? The landscape for artists is changing. 60 years ago, many artists came from working class families. Kirk Douglas, Lauren Bacall, Joan Crawford, James Cagney, Cary Grant, and Barbara Stanwyck all came from poor families and all survived in New York at one time or another as actors. Nowadays most are from middle class families. Nobody could survive in the city for very long without external support.



  12. Heather on January 8, 2011 at 11:48 pm

    What they're doing now is just a national version of what they did before. Greenwich Village and Soho used to be run down industrial areas, so the rent was cheap and the artists moved in. When the rents went up, the artists went elsewhere. Now, there are no more potential artist's enclaves in New York do they're moving to cities like Detroit and Cleveland, which have been devastated by the loss of manufacturing jobs and the housing crisis. It's pretty much what they were doing before on a larger scale. In a city where rent is over $1000 a month for a closet, you'd have to work 60 hours a week just to pay the bills. Doesn't leave much time for art, does it? The landscape for artists is changing. 60 years ago, many artists came from working class families. Kirk Douglas, Lauren Bacall, Joan Crawford, James Cagney, Cary Grant, and Barbara Stanwyck all came from poor families and all survived in New York at one time or another as actors. Nowadays most are from middle class families. Nobody could survive in the city for very long without external support.



  13. […] estate blogger Candy Evans recently riffed on her Second Shelters site about a possible exodus of New York artists to cheaper cities. She […]