David Byrne RR - Whitney Ratliff

David Byrne has noticed the decrease in New York's artistic culture as it focuses more on business. Even the state of living seems to be dropping in New York, with the wealthy buying buildings but only living in them a few weeks out of the year and the middle class continues to struggle with living costs alone. He questions what the future holds for New York and where it will end up without the emerging artists now forming, seeking a community that thrives on the necessity of art and culture. Where New York was once a diverse, legendary state where things happened, especially for the visual arts, is now headed into a new "Gilded Age" as he calls.

He believes, "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 bikeshare 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%."

New York is losing its flare, so to speak, crumbling when it comes to the cultural department and lacking immensely in artistic charm that once thrived in the city decades before. Now, it is nothing but hardships and living expenses no emerging artist can afford, especially on talent alone. It has lost its ethnic beauty and is now a large focus on corporate businesses such as Wall Street. Needless to say, one cannot have a full functioning community without both the mind and the body. A healthy balance is needed to make New York a thriving city worthy of cultural diversity and artistic charm. 

(GIF) What New York is basically doing to emerging artists.