Find a new city
austinkleon.com
Find a new city
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Re: Find a new city
#2Everywhere is just a buncha kids trying to make it, until they do, then others want in, so they get there, copy everything, until they crowd others out, repeat the process.
Find a new game server.
Re: Find a new city
#3Many New York artists talk about NYC as if it was cheap but it is simply not true. There is no other place in the US that concentrates so many different types of people. Patti Smith, David Byrne etc all benefitted from there being billionaires, millionaires, celebrities, thespians, high profile doctors, lawyers, and more than a century of civic dedication to arts and culture. There is a shared communal love and support for creative things in NY. Like all cities that grow, gentrification happens. But if you think the LES or east village was cheap in the 80s it's because you were white and middle class. When this author speaks he's talking to white middle class liberal arts types (like me!) and bemoaning the fact that getting direct access to world class culture isn't "cheap anymore" when the reality is if you want that in NY now you move to crown heights. And there will be some myopic look back in 25 years saying the same shit about that place too.
Ask Patti Smith what happened to the Puerto Ricans who lived there before her. Was it too cheap for them?
Re: Find a new city
#4I definitely understand the need for a progressive city -- I grew up in the midwest in a place that was decidedly not.
But Paul Graham gave a talk about how Pittsburgh could be the next startup city [1]. And price factors in for both artists and entrepreneurs.
Re: Find a new city
#5Many New York artists talk about NYC as if it was cheap but it is simply not true. There is no other place in the US that concentrates so many different types of people. Patti Smith, David Byrne etc all benefitted from there being billionaires, millionaires, celebrities, thespians, high profile doctors, lawyers, and more than a century of civic dedication to arts and culture. There is a shared communal love and suppo…
> Many New York artists talk about NYC as if it was cheap but it is simply not true.
Can you clarify your position? My reading is that the article was making the point that rent is significantly more expensive in NY today than it was in the 60s and early 70s when people like Patti Smith were there.
As far as I can tell, this is objectively true. Here's a chart of of the last 100 years of rental/purchase prices in NY [1]. Admittedly one that does adjust for inflation would be better, but it pretty clearly demonstrates that the mid-70s to 2000s showed a massive leap in NY's unaffordability.
[1] http://ny.curbed.com/2015/6/2/9954250/tracking-new-york-rent...
Re: Find a new city
#6I really enjoyed this article. I think that if there's one thing that's going to gut the creativity and character of our cities it's going to be hugely increasing rents and housing prices that we're seeing in almost all major urban centers.
> Young folks: Forget New York City. Forget San Francisco. Forget Austin, Texas. Stay out of debt, live somewhere cheap, make something happen
> This is pretty much what I was trying to say a few days ago, when I posted a series of Tweets that I thought were fairly uncontroversial, not to mention unoriginal:
A little off topic, but it's sort of a sign of the state of Twitter today that an unoffensive, positive, and fairly thoughtful tweet like this one is enough to set off the Twitter hate machine (I think that's what he's implying happened here). Many users seem to be put in a concerted effort to read other people's comments as uncharitably as they possibly can.
Re: Find a new city
#7Many New York artists talk about NYC as if it was cheap but it is simply not true. There is no other place in the US that concentrates so many different types of people. Patti Smith, David Byrne etc all benefitted from there being billionaires, millionaires, celebrities, thespians, high profile doctors, lawyers, and more than a century of civic dedication to arts and culture. There is a shared communal love and suppo…
> Many New York artists talk about NYC as if it was cheap but it is simply not true. Can you clarify your position? My reading is that the article was making the point that rent is significantly more expensive in NY today than it was in the 60s and early 70s when people like Patti Smith were there. As far as I can tell, this is objectively true. Here's a chart of of the last 100 years of rental/purchase prices in NY…
The post is very misleading because it's not about absolute cost of living, you should also suggest data for other towns where an artist could have lived, for example some small town in Ohio.
If Patti Smith lived somewhere in Colorado mountains to do her thing, she probably wouldn't be where she is today. Artists require audience, and cities like New York have them, ready to spend money. That's why people moved to New York, and "created their scene". They would have never been able to "create their own scene" in a farm town with population of 300.
That said, it makes more sense nowadays since we now have Internet. I think you can just live wherever is the cheapest and work on your art (could be an actual piece of art or even a business) since we have the Internet.
But it's wrong to say the artists "created their scene" in New York. New York was the only place they could have "created their scene" back then.
Re: Find a new city
#8There's a difference between attracting artists, and attracting engineers. Both thrive in communities surrounded by like minded people. The difference is entry level artists can't live in high priced cities, so they must find new habitats. Otherwise art goes back to a hobby for the idle rich. Engineers can get by (if not save a ton) on entry level jobs in places like Silicon Valley or SF. It just takes a willingness to have roommates.
I left Manhattan because you had to be in a hedge fund to have a good life. For all the talk of Silicon Valley being expensive, you don't need to add private school costs to a $6K rent.
Re: Find a new city
#9I really enjoyed this article. I think that if there's one thing that's going to gut the creativity and character of our cities it's going to be hugely increasing rents and housing prices that we're seeing in almost all major urban centers. > Young folks: Forget New York City. Forget San Francisco. Forget Austin, Texas. Stay out of debt, live somewhere cheap, make something happen > This is pretty much what I was try…
Well, in the first place, contrast the staccato proclamation of the tweet with the article leading up to that tweet. Twitter is a terrible way to try to communicate anything that needs explanation.
In the second place, Austin and especially SF do have locals with well-known and even organized hostility towards newcomers.
Re: Find a new city
#10This view ignores the benefits of the large cities.
The rents are high for a reason. You want to go there. And not just for the cultural opportunities. Most people want good jobs.
You can't have everyone starting startups, or working remotely.
To put it another way, almost everything important and interesting you do will require other people.