Money’s Too Tight: Housing Edition
David Byrne (Photo by Fred Von Lohman)
After a long delay of posting material on the course site, I wanted to share this article from the Guardian by David Byrne, longtime artist/musician/singer, about the effect that the changing economy and cultural life of New York City. His argument is that the increasingly high cost of living in New York is killing its creative energies and that, ultimately, this will lead to the demise of the city itself. As he writes,
Most of Manhattan and many parts of Brooklyn are virtual walled communities, pleasure domes for the rich (which, full disclosure, includes me), and aside from those of us who managed years ago to find our niche and some means of income, there is no room for fresh creative types. Middle-class people can barely afford to live here anymore, so forget about emerging artists, musicians, actors, dancers, writers, journalists and small business people. Bit by bit, the resources that keep the city vibrant are being eliminated.
While New York is different from Toronto in a lot of ways, and it certainly has played a different role in the history of popular music and contemporary culture, there is a lot of what Byrne writes that holds true for Toronto (and perhaps other Canadian cities.) What does the rapid rise in rents, housing costs, etc. mean for the future of music in Toronto? Yorkville was the centre of music in the late 1960s (see this video for a vision of Toronto in the swinging sixties), and musical culture has slowly moved further west along Queen Street in the 1970s to the present, how much further out of the core can culture be pushed before Hamilton is the centre of music for Toronto musicians.
Has Toronto similarly become a playground for the wealthy? What does this mean for the future of musical performance and creativity in the city?
I think that the mainstream music industry will highly benefit from this shift of wealth. Mainstream artists can easily pick and choose where to perform from the wide range of urban cities which consist of concentrated, wealthy populations. However, for the up-and-coming artists, I think that they are in an unsatisfactory position especially with the new notions of neoliberalization being placed upon the cities. In one of my previous classes, we discussed how the government engages in “taking back the city” such as removing graffiti, encouraging more consumerism, etc. (Basically, it is a highly strategic process, that benefits the wealthy while widening the gap between the wealthy and the poor). The downtown core is the centre for consumerism. Nowadays, I feel like the primary goal of downtown is to create profit, not to show creativity. The arts are being substituted by business. That is why dominant artists will remain dominant.
Additionally, I think this video relates to the topic of the gap between the rich and the poor. It shows the difference between the public’s perception of the rich-poor gap and the reality. It’s worth watching because it is pretty scary!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JTj9AcwkaKM
I also think that the artists who are trying to make a living by performing in the downtown core of Toronto are looked down upon. This is similar to Cockayne’s “Noisy” article where she states that “the types of noise that attracted most complaint among the literate and vociferous citizens were those sounds made by the poor citizens -- especially the sounds made by popular entertainers and low-profit traders” (2007, p. 122). Even though this statement applies to a society from the 1700s, I still think it holds true to the 21st century society, especially in an area where the power relations between the rich and the poor are distinct.
I agree with most of what you’ve written. I think the question then becomes what can be done to make sure that the city doesn’t become playgrounds for the wealthy.
Are there cities that have been more successful at negotiating the economic processes you’ve outlined. Are places like Portland or Seattle something that Toronto could learn from (even if shows like Portlandia have pointed out some of their more absurd aspects)?
Simply put, I think the cost of living in a particular city becomes the deciding factor as to whether or not the city becomes a playground for the wealthy. The higher the cost of living, the more likely aspiring artists will become discouraged or inactive.
With the high cost of living (Toronto being the second most expensive place to live in Canada), there also arises a change in culture. For example, we can see this in the processes of gentrification in Toronto, where there are “ideal” middle-class neighbourhoods being deliberately formed. Culture in these neighbourhoods is completely revamped to fit in with the middle-class lifestyle.
I think it will be difficult for aspiring musicians, especially those from lower classes, to make their mark in the bigger music industry in cities such as New York or even Toronto. As for other cities, I am not familiar with the ways in which neoliberalism has been halted because its context is prevalent especially in the Western world.