Hey New York, Give Cleveland Your Tired, Your Poor, Your Artists

I travel to new York City quite a bit.  I love the town.  There's so many places to explore.  The trips are short and I usually concentrate on a different neighborhood each time instead of traversing the city until I'm too tired. 

There's so many cool sections from the East Village, to the Upper Westside, to Chelsea, to Soho, to the madness of Midtown.  It's a much safer place than when I originally started going there in the early 80s.  But with that safety came a continuing gentrification which has forced those without large bank accounts to move out of  Manhattan to other burroughs like Brooklyn. 

Ah, but now Brooklyn is seeing a rise in real estate prices, and people, particularly artists, are searching for completely new cities to call home.  Cleveland welcomes them with open arms. 

For the past few years it seems that every other music artist lives in Brooklyn.  They moved there from all over the country.  The highly popular indie band The National moved there from Cincinnati.  Dan Auerbach of Akron's Black Keys recently relocated to Brooklyn.  There's countless others.  And now it seems the reverse may be starting to happen.

Crains New York Business has written about this trend.  And last week Cool Cleveland wrote about it from our aspect, Artists Fleeing New York City For Cleveland.

Here's hoping the leaders of Cleveland make it easy for these new citizens to flourish.  And here's hoping that we Clevelanders support these artists.  Oh, and welcome to the town I love, all of you recently transplanted artists.

Photo by Charles Mintz

Comments

[Nowthissound]

Just a little clarification: Patrick Carney lived in Brooklyn for a while, but both he and Dan Auerbach relocated to Nashville this past autumn. And damn good for them. Proud as I am that they grew up twenty minutes from where I did, I think they're going to flourish in Music City.

That being said, Cleveland has a great music scene that I'm happy to frequent. While we still get passed over by some artists for whatever reason, we can still see a good show almost any night of the week, and a lot of those good shows are played by locals.

[John Hannibal]

Thanks for the reply. Yeah, I must have had the two mixed up, though I searched and thought I had it right. First I've heard that they're both heading to Nashville. I knew one of them was. And to be clear, those guys and The National, the other example I used, are artists who, at this point, can afford to live in NYC.
You're also right in that with Carney and Auerbach now both moving to Nashville it bodes well for future projects. Lastly, amen to the terrific local music scene. See you at a show soon. Like tonight for Doug McKean (who recently relocated to Austin) and The Stuntmen with Brent Kirby warming up.