NYT: New York City’s creative sector – which includes architects, potters, filmmakers and clothing designers – has long helped fuel the city’s economy because of its size and its role in drawing the wealthy to town.
But relentless inflation in real estate and health care costs are endangering New York’s long dominance in the creative sector, according to a new report, as artists and companies migrate to less expensive cities eager to lure them.
20 years ago, New York was the headquarters for half of the world’s advertising agencies, but is now home to fewer than a third, according to the report, written by the Center for an Urban Future, a left-leaning New York research group that analyzes urban policy issues.
While the city still is home to most of the American publishing industry, the number of jobs in that field fell 3 percent in the last decade in New York, while increasing in San Francisco, Boston and Denver. And from 2001 to 2004, the number of jobs in New York City’s motion picture and sound recording industries declined by 36 percent.
Richard Florida, who has written extensively on the topic, has argued that a “creative class” attracts workers and industries outside of the creative world who want to live in a tolerant, heterogeneous culture. This combination stimulates the economy. At a recent conference, Mr. Florida put it simply: “When a place gets boring, even the rich people leave.”
[via Gaping Void]
