Re:Letting Go of Nostalgia Urbanism
by marcus_holmes on Monday January 04, 2021 @05:41AM
(#25629658)
The incentives are all wrong.
My mother was a professional artist. She was contacted by a property developers who had noticed this effect and wanted to bring artists to their development so it would become gentrified. Mum explained that to do that, they would need to provide cheap (very cheap!) studio space for the artists to use. The developer did the maths and decided to just make apartments for yuppies as it was more profitable.
To make money off this, the artists would need to own the buildings they occupy, and then sell them to the incoming gentrified yuppies. After having spent the money upgrading the building, of course, because the yuppies need all the mod cons. That would involve spending attention, money and time on making money instead of art. To do this, they would need to stop being artists and become property developers.
My mother was a professional artist. She was contacted by a property developers who had noticed this effect and wanted to bring artists to their development so it would become gentrified. Mum explained that to do that, they would need to provide cheap (very cheap!) studio space for the artists to use. The developer did the maths and decided to just make apartments for yuppies as it was more profitable.
To make money off this, the artists would need to own the buildings they occupy, and then sell them to the incoming gentrified yuppies. After having spent the money upgrading the building, of course, because the yuppies need all the mod cons. That would involve spending attention, money and time on making money instead of art. To do this, they would need to stop being artists and become property developers.