Photo by Greg Cristman
Gregory R. Cristman

David Byrne says, "If the 1% stifles New York's creative talent, I'm out of here"

David Byrne @ Wellmont Theatre in June (more by Greg Cristman)
D. Byrne

The city is a body and a mind–a physical structure as well as a repository of ideas and information. Knowledge and creativity are resources. If the physical (and financial) parts are functional, then the flow of ideas, creativity and information are facilitated. The city is a fountain that never stops: it generates its energy from the human interactions that take place in it. Unfortunately, we’re getting to a point where many of New York’s citizens have been excluded from this equation for too long. The physical part of our city–the body–has been improved immeasurably. I’m a huge supporter of the bike lanes and the bike-share program, the new public plazas, the waterfront parks and the functional public transportation system. But the cultural part of the city–the mind–has been usurped by the top 1 percent…

…This real estate situation – a topic New Yorkers love to complain about over dinner – doesn’t help the future health of the city. If young, emerging talent of all types can’t find a foothold in this city, then it will be a city closer to Hong Kong or Abu Dhabi than to the rich fertile place it has historically been. Those places might have museums, but they don’t have culture. Ugh. If New York goes there – more than it already has – I’m leaving.

Like most of us who live in NYC, David Byrne has a bit of a love-hate relationship with the city, which he muses on in a new editorial written for Creative Time Reports’ Summit Series — read the whole thing either at The Guardian or Creative Time.

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