Nov

29

NY Times on gentrification in The Crossroads

November 29, 2005 | 7 Comments

The Crossroads Arts District gets a lot of national press for the quantity and quality of art Downtown, but the latest article highlights the neighborhood as an example of a trend that is well-established in cities all over the country.

  1. Artists move into abandoned neighborhoods to take advantage of cheap rent.
  2. Their presence draws interest from other creative types and spurs redevelopment of the blighted area.
  3. The neighborhood gets “discovered” by the masses, attracting the attention of retailers, restauranteurs, condo developers, etc.
  4. The new popularity makes real estate more valuable, driving up property values and thus taxes, which begins price out the artists who started the whole thing.

Neighborhood leaders and city officials are working on a plan to provide some tax relief, but there is a real danger that their efforts will come to late for many. The galleries are staying put for now, but many of the independent artists have already migrated east and also down into the West Bottoms. The artists were driven from New York’s Soho long ago, and the writing is on the wall for the Crossroads.

New York Times: Artists feel the squeeze in a Midwest Soho.

Categories: Arts/Entertainment, Downtown, Real Estate


Comments

7 Comments so far

  1. tony on November 29, 2005 11:31 am

    I could give a flying funk about the artists. It’s more shameful that crossroads development threatens to displace the Mexican-Americans in the longstanding Westside neighborhood with recent efforts to annex a couple of blocks past Broadway. Get it straight (white) peeps: Crossroads ends at Broadway and then the neighborhood and businesses become part of the Westside . . . where racial politics and bickering makes all your real estate ponzi schemes a little less profitable.

  2. David on November 29, 2005 1:13 pm

    One good turn deserves another. What about the homeless people that the hip artist drove out and the mom and pop stores who were displaced by the artist.
    You talk as if nobody was in the Crossroads area before your “discovered” it.

  3. Northeast Guy on November 29, 2005 2:45 pm

    Property development has never been brain surgery. Developers have been following the arts crowd for 40 years in nearly every large city in America and more than a few in Europe. I’ve watched plenty of average folks do very well by seeing the artists come to their neighborhood and reacting by quietly buying a parcel or two and holding on for the duration. Unfortunately the power structure in KC is all about eminent domain and those that wait patiently are rewarded by having their property condemned and given to the developers.

    Of course the whole idea of tax relief in the crossroads has nothing to do with helping those shouldering the burden there. It has everything to do with the fact that the power structure wishes to keep the artists right where they are so that they can develop the bottoms and the near east side now rather than later. I smell TIF in the air…

  4. BlogK on November 29, 2005 8:29 pm

    What Mom & Pop stores where in the Crossroads before the artists came it? I remember it being essentially vacant and abandoned…

  5. matt on November 30, 2005 8:27 am

    perhaps david is still a little groggy from his time machine trip from 1947 kansas city…

  6. Hippstar on November 30, 2005 9:30 pm

    Plus, who is thinking about buying a place or staying in a place but decides it’s just too expensive because of taxes? The problem for many artists isn’t going to be taxes, it’s going to be trying to buy a one-bedroom down there and finding out it now costs $250k.

    I briefly explored buying a place at the Western Auto building, and they made a big deal about the tax abatement, but what’s an extra $1000 or so a year when the damn monthly payment is already $2000?

  7. BlogKC on November 30, 2005 10:25 pm

    Hippster, they’re more worried about property taxes on studio space, not condos. The article mentions the Leedy studio’s taxes going tripling to $40,000. That’s a whole other ballpark from $2000 condo taxes.

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