Artists vs. Blight - Article in Wall Street Journal
Wall Street Journal
April 17, 2009
Last
month, artists Michael Di Liberto and Sunia Boneham moved into a
two-story, three-bedroom house in Cleveland's Collinwood neighborhood,
where about 220 homes out of 5,000 sit vacant and boarded up. They
lined their walls with Ms. Boneham's large, neon-hued canvases, turned
a spare bedroom into a graphic-design studio and made the attic a
rehearsal space for their band, Arte Povera.
The couple used to live in New York, but they were drawn to
Cleveland by cheap rent and the creative possibilities of a city in
transition. "It seemed real alive and cool," said Mr. Di Liberto.
Their new house is one of nine previously foreclosed properties that
a local community development corporation bought, some for as little as
a few thousand dollars. The group aims to create a 10-block "artists
village" in Collinwood, with residences for artists like Mr. Di
Liberto, 31 years old, and Ms. Boneham, 34.
Artists have long been leaders of an urban vanguard that colonizes
blighted areas. Now, the current housing crisis has created a new class
of urban pioneer. Nationwide, home foreclosure proceedings increased
81% in 2008 from the previous year, rising to 2.3 million, according to
California-based foreclosure listing firm RealtyTrac. Homes in hard-hit
cities such as Detroit and Cleveland are selling for as little as $1.
Drawn by available spaces and cheap rents, artists are filling in
some of the neighborhoods being emptied by foreclosures. City officials
and community groups seeking ways to stop the rash of vacancies are
offering them incentives to move in, from low rents and mortgages to
creative control over renovation projects.
"Artists have become the occupiers of last resort," said Robert
McNulty, president of Partners for Livable Communities, a
Washington-based nonprofit organization. "The worse things get, the
more creative you have to become."
(for the complete article, click here)
