{"id":1994,"date":"2014-07-30T12:59:06","date_gmt":"2014-07-30T19:59:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/culturecrash\/?p=1994"},"modified":"2014-07-30T12:59:06","modified_gmt":"2014-07-30T19:59:06","slug":"an-arts-district-without-artists","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/culturecrash\/2014\/07\/an-arts-district-without-artists.html","title":{"rendered":"“An Arts District without artists?”"},"content":{"rendered":"

[contextly_auto_sidebar id=”sm1yCVkC5n9okJnqnTpzTSDYpQTHApRe”]<\/p>\n

WE’VE heard this before, but it’s always painful when it happens: The visual artists who have helped tame downtown Los Angeles and given it a hip sheen are now being forced out by gentrification and rising rents. The process is just starting, but it seems destined to pick up speed quite soon. A new story<\/a> in the Los Angeles Times describes the process.<\/p>\n

Then a decade ago, what started with a new restaurant on this block and then another up that street, turned into an avalanche of development. Warehouses became condos, including a one-time sugar beet storehouse that when converted caught the eye of real estate-savvy actress Diane Keaton.<\/a> A new coffee shop moves in every month or so, and it’s hard to walk two minutes in any direction in the 52-block neighborhood without finding a blue-and-white filming notice announcing an upcoming car commercial or episode of “New Girl.” And soon, the One Santa Fe <\/a> complex will be open.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

THE growth of downtown LA has been fun to watch; in many ways, it’s better (and certainly safer) than it was as decade or two ago. Some of the story describes the loss of a small-community “vibe.” That’s always sad, but my bigger fear is that artists won’t be able to live and work there at all. Creative communities are important, and being physically close to other artists in one’s field is crucial to learning and growing. It also balances the often solitary and introspective work of art-making with some sense of cama\"220px-Los_Angeles_Skyline_at_Night\"<\/a>raderie and connection that the Internet can’t replace.<\/p>\n

But visual artists (like dancers, and theater folk) need space to do what they do. As rents rise — and bankers and hedge-fund guys, typically taxed less than artists) buy condos — they have to leave. How long will that take? “For sculptor Heath Satow, the answer is not long,” the Times article says. “He pays $3,900 a month for a roughly 5,700-square-foot warehouse at the neighborhood’s edge, but he knows that a gallery up the street pays three times as much. When he gets priced out \u2014 and he knows that day is coming \u2014 he said he’ll probably move somewhere with lots of cheap warehouse space, like Vernon.”<\/p>\n

This story– which has hit even harder in San Francisco and Berkeley\/Oakland — is being repeated all over the country.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

[contextly_auto_sidebar id=”sm1yCVkC5n9okJnqnTpzTSDYpQTHApRe”] WE’VE heard this before, but it’s always painful when it happens: The visual artists who have helped tame downtown Los Angeles and given it a hip sheen are now being forced out by gentrification and rising rents. The process is just starting, but it seems destined to pick up speed quite soon. A […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[70,30,581,94,29],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-1994","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-art","7":"category-los-angeles","8":"category-rent-too-high","9":"category-urbanism","10":"category-west-coast","11":"entry","12":"has-post-thumbnail"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/culturecrash\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1994","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/culturecrash\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/culturecrash\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/culturecrash\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/culturecrash\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1994"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/culturecrash\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1994\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/culturecrash\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1994"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/culturecrash\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1994"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/culturecrash\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1994"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}