america's top art places 2013

7/30/2019 America's Top Art Places 2013

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AmericasTopArtPlaces

2013


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Art is inspiring and motivating. But it is also a powerful catalyst for

change within communities, invigorating neighborhoods, supportinglocal businesses, and creating vibrant places where people want to be.

ArtPlace, a collaboration of leading national and regional foundations,banks and federal agencies, was founded to accelerate creativeplacemaking that is, putting art at the heart of a portfolio of strategiesto revitalize communities in ways nothing else quite can.

Inside are profiles of the first-ever list of Americas Top ArtPlaces.

Twelve neighborhoods across the country were identified by ArtPlaceas most successfully combining art, artists and other creatives,independent businesses, retail shops and restaurants, and walkabilityto make vibrant places.

The selection of these neighborhoods was based on a set of six in

Four indicators measure the ingredients of vibrancy: the numbretail and service businesses, the percentage of independent busthe neighborhoods Walk Score and the percentage of workecreative occupations living in the neighborhood. Then two artsindicators were added: the number of arts-related non-profitsthe number of arts-related businesses.

Finally, neighborhood scores were normalized for family incomso that neighborhoods with the highest concentration of incomnot skew the results.

The results are 12 exciting, and sometimes surprising, neighborho

all unique, all deeply local, all relatively recent comeback stowith art at their heart.

Americas Top ArtPlaces demonstrate how art and artists are the kinds of places people want to be.

Americas Top 12 ArtPlaces


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Brooklyn, NY

The intersection of Downtown,Fort Greene, Gowanus, Park Slopeand Prospect Heights

Dallas, TX

The Dallas Arts District, with partsof Deep Ellum and Exposition Park

Los Angeles, CA

Central Hollywood

Miami Beach, FL

South Beach

Milwaukee, WI

East Town and a portionof the Lower East Side

New York, NYManhattan Valley

Oakland, CA

Downtown, including Chinatown,Old Oakland and Jack London Sq

Philadelphia, PA

Old City

Portland, OR

The Pearl Districtand a portion of Downtown

San Francisco, CA

The Mission District

Seattle, WA

The Pike-Pine Corridor

Washington, DC

The intersection of Adams Morgan

U Street, and Dupont Circle

Americas Top 12 ArtPlaces(in alphabetical order, not ranked)

Inside, youll get a look at what

makes these communitiesAmericas Top 12 ArtPlaces.Writing with intimate knowledgeof their local communities,our reporters interviewed localleaders in the arts, communityresidents and businesspeople.The results tell a compelling storyabout how the arts can sparkexciting changes in communitiesand create the kinds of places

people want to be.Even though weve profiledonly the 12 top neighborhoodsnationwide, every metropolitanarea has its own top ArtPlaceneighborhood. A complete listof the neighborhoods that rankedhighest in each of the largest44 metropolitan areas acrossthe country appears on page 33.


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How We DeterminedAmericas Top ArtPlaces

Intensive research went into refining the data points ArtPlace usesto identify these centers of creative activity. The bedrock of theresearch comes from a tool developed for ArtPlace by Portland-basedImpresa Consulting, called The Vibrancy Indicators. These tenindicators will be used to track changes over time in the peopleand activity in the places ArtPlace invests. They are:

1. Population Density2. Employment Rate3. Percentage of Workers in Creative Occupations4. Number of Indicator Businesses5. Number of Jobs in the Community6. Walkability (Walk Score)7. Number of Mixed-Use Blocks8. Cell Phone Activity9. Percentage of Independent Businesses10. Number of Creative Industry Jobs

The selection of these indicators was guided by the fact that eais collected nationally and is available at a neighborhood levelof geography. Once complete, The Vibrancy Indicators will be mavailable publicly for use by anyone interested in measuringneighborhood vibrancy.

For further details, see artplaceamerica.org/vibrancy-indicatorthe purposes of selecting Americas Top ArtPlaces, the full list oindicators was reduced to the four most applicable indicators:

1. Number of Indicator Businesses2. Percentage of Independent Businesses3. Walkability (Walk Score)4. Percentage of Workers in Creative Occupa

Two other factors were added to this list to pinpoint the locatof arts activities:

1. Number of Arts-Related Non-Profit Organ2. Number of Arts-Related Businesses


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The Selection Process

The first step in determining Americas Top ArtPlaces was identifyingthe Zip codes in each of the 44 largest metropolitan areas in the U.S.that ranked highest on these indicators; that is, the neighborhoodsthat show the combined effects of vibrancy and the concentration ofartistic activity.

After identifying these neighborhoods, neighborhoods that were notamong the top 2 to 3 percent in each of the six indicators wereeliminated. Applying the screening criteria to more than 30,000 Zipcodes nationally, the research team narrowed the list for consideration

to 200 Zip codes that had the highest values on the six indicators.

Next, the pattern of indicator businesses and arts non-profits in eachof the selected Zip codes was analyzed to identify a central locationthat represented the greatest concentration of activity in that Zip code.After identifying the center of the activity not necessarily an artscenter like Lincoln Center, just a center point based on concentrationof activity the team traced a half-mile radius around it and ran thenumbers again for that newly defined area.

Scores were normalized based on the distribution of scores for all of

the 200 neighborhood centers that survived the screening process. Thenormalized scores are on a scale of zero to 100, with the highest-scoringneighborhood being 100. The score for each neighborhood representsits rank in the distribution of all the neighborhood centers analyzed.


Filtering for Income

Finally, to address the concern that some neighborhoods mighvery high scores because of a concentration of high-income hoin the neighborhood, one further adjustment was made. Usingfrom the American Community Survey, the team computed thefamily income for the half-mile radius surrounding each selecte

The median family incomes were normalized, and the resultinwere inverted so the highest-income neighborhood had a scoreand the lowest-income neighborhoods had a score of 100. Thenormalized income score was multiplied by the score compute

earlier. This adjustment has the effect of raising scores of low-neighborhoods relative to high-income neighborhoods.

The results reflect the highest scoring neighborhood in each onations 44 largest metropolitan areas. In metropolitan areas wor more principal cities in which each city had a neighborhoodthe screening criteria Tampa/St. Petersburg, Minneapolis/StDallas/Fort Worth the highest-scoring neighborhood in eachcity was selected.


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Data Sources

1. Indicator Businesses:American Business Database

2. Arts Non-Profits:National Center for Charitable Statistics

3. Independent Businesses:American Business Database

4. Workers in Creative Occupations:American Community Survey

5. Arts-Related Businesses:American Business Database

6. Walk Score: Front Seat, Inc.7. Census 20108. SpotRank: Skyhook9. American Community Survey


Further Explanation

Indicator Businesses are defined as retail and service businesses thatrely heavily on walk-in customer traffic and include 44 different categoriesof businesses.

The percentage of Independent Businesses is inferred by the fractionof eating places in each ArtPlace neighborhood that was independent.To determine which eating places were independent, we identified a listof the 400 largest restaurant chains in the U.S. compiled by NationalRestaurant News. We then employed a pattern recognition/namematching algorithm to our database of eating places and identified all

establishments that were part of one of the 400 largest restaurantchains. We classified all other restaurants as independent.

Arts-Related Businesses are defined as four categories of business:dance studios and schools, museums and art galleries, musicalinstrument stores and theatrical producers.

Creative Occupations are defined as arts, design, entertainment, sportsand media occupations.


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Oakland, CA

Any city would killto get the attention excitement happenat Art Murmur. Its organic expressionthe people who live a very bottom-up en

Philadelphia, PA

Its great to be parof that vitality and to fuel new artand new perspectiv

A Note about

Rural Communities

This process is very effective inidentifying active, arts-drivenneighborhoods in metropolitanareas, but less effective atrecognizing rural communities.It is hard to gauge the successof Marfa, Texas, for example,because it does not compare

in the number of businesses,population density, etc. ArtPlaceis developing a set of indicators thatidentify the most animatedarts communities in rural America.


Acknowledgement

Data analysis and processingwas performed by Impresa, Inc.,a Portland-based consultingfirm specializing in the studyof metropolitan economies,knowledge-based industriesand the development andmigration of talented workers.


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Americas

Top 12ArtPlaces


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TargNeig

Arts

CoreBusi

Feat

Percentage of Workers

in Creative Occupation

6.3%

Percentage of

Independent Businesses

91%

Number of Arts-Related

Businesses

30

Number of Arts-Related

Non-Profit Organizations

76

Number of Indicator

Businesses

722

Walk Score(Walkability)

99

Mullanes Bar & Grill

Flea Market

Museum of Contemporary African Diasporan Arts

Co

urtesyofJohnMontgomery

CourtesyofJohnMontgomery


Copyright2009StephanieBerger





Bang on a Can Ensemble Stonehome Wine Bar

Brownstones, Portland Avenue

The Green Grape

Brooklyn Academy of Music

Barclays Center

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A couple of blocks to the east,the 1980s saw another importantdevelopment. In 1983 the BrooklynAcademy of Music, an establishedforce in the neighborhood since1908, began its Next Wave Festival.Featuring such artists as PhilipGlass, Laurie Anderson, and SteveReich, BAM began promotingthe avant-garde on a grand scale.The festival attracted internationalattention, and BAM became amajor cultural force in the borough.In 1997 BAM Rose Cinemas opened,giving Brooklyn residents a chanceto see art films close to home.Since then, BAM has opened twonew spaces the Harvey Theater

in 1999 and the Fisher in 2012.

Just as importantly, BAM has workedto bring other arts organizationsinto the neighborhood. In the pastfew years, those efforts have paid off:In 2001 Mark Morris Dance Projectopened a studio in the neighborhoodto train dancers ranging in age frompre-schoolers to adult professionals.In 2006 the high-rise 80 Hanson Artsopened, with MoCADA in itsground-floor space. On the floorsabove, tenants include organizationslike Bang on a Can, an organizationof new-music percussionists; BOMBMagazine, an arts publication drivenby interviews between artists andtheir literary peers; and StoryCorps,an oral-history collective often

heard on NPR. In 2011 Roulette,a jazz and new-music transplantfrom Manhattans SoHo, revitalizedone of the neighborhoods oldtheaters, turning it into a stylishperformance and education space.

Mark Morris Dance Center

Brooklyn Academy of Music, Interior/Exterior

The Brooklyn Moon Caf, a Caribbeanrestaurant, has been in its FultonStreet location in Fort Greene since1995. On a recent Wednesday it hada pleasant buzz some diners, a fewpeople there just for drinks, and anoverall feeling of friendly community.A museum-quality show featuringartists of African descent hangs onthe walls. The wallpaper over the baris a 70s photograph silkscreenedWarhol-style showing Julius Irvingof the New York Nets about to dunkover the head of Phil Jackson of theNew York Knicks. The picture is akind of sly wink: Dr. Js old team hasbecome the Brooklyn Nets. Brooklynmay not dominate Manhattan like

Irving does Jackson, the image seemsto say but it might fly right over itevery once in a while.

Manhattan is still where top-tierart is bought and sold the site ofthe auction houses and blue-chipgalleries. Art is part of Manhattansinternational reputation.

In Brooklyn, it is increasingly a partof everyday life a local affair, evenif many of its artists and institutionshave international reputations.

Across the street from theBrooklyn Moon is Greenlight Books,which opened in 2009 when manyindependent bookstores were foldingunder pressure from the chains,the Internet, and the economy.Many nights the store hosts majornovelists on international book tours.This evenings event was morelocal and demonstrated how muchthe bookstore knits together theneighborhoods disparate elements.The host was Jessica Lanay Moore,a curatorial fellow at the Museum

of Contemporary African DiasporicArts (MoCADA), also located in theneighborhood. Moore is a young,recent arrival to Brooklyn. Ive onlybeen here six months, she said,

but it seemed like the place to be.

Vaudeville, Jazzand Experimental Music

In the early 20th century Fulton Street one of the main arteries of downtownBrooklyn and Fort Greene wasthe boroughs main theater district.Movie houses and vaudeville theatersdominated the street, creatinga local alternative to Broadway the Great White Way in Manhattan.During the middle of the century theneighborhoods fortunes declined.Some theaters were converted intomanufacturing buildings in the1950s, but many were demolishedin the 1970s and 1980s. Wealthierresidents began leaving theneighborhood; unemploymentand urban violence grew.

At the same time, the seeds ofBrooklyns current booming artsworld were being sown in theneighborhood.

The pioneers were jazz musicians.In the 1970s Betty Carter, CecilTaylor, and Lester Bowie boughtbrownstones on the neighborhoodsstately, tree-lined streets. BranfordMarsalis followed in the 1980s,as did filmmaker Spike Lee. By 1984when Lee filmed Shes Gotta Have It,Fort Greene had become a vibrantcosmopolitan neighborhoodpopulated by successful African-American artists and professionals.In the 1990s, the spoken-wordpoetry scene began in Fort Greene,

largely in the Brooklyn Moon.Writers Jamaica Kinkaid and AmiriBaraka read in the caf, and thesinger Erykah Badu gave her firstperformance there.

This borough has more

artists than any otherborough in NYC, andthat comes acrossin every aspect bars,cafs, night clubs,houses of worship, books.

Theres a critical ma

of arts organizationI think its going to bMuseum Mile in Ma

Ive only been here sixmonths, but it seemedlike the place to be.


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ourtesyofJohnMontgomery

Arts Organizationsand Architecture

In 2014 BRIC House will open acrossthe street from BAM, giving hometo one of downtown Brooklyns mostvibrant arts organizations andthe force behind the free CelebrateBrooklyn! concerts in Prospect Park.The new architecture of BRIC House

reimagines one of the old Brooklyntheaters, the Strand. The lobbywill be open from 10 am to 10 pm,as accessible to the public as a parkor a library. It will have a caf, agallery featuring Brooklyn artists,a local-access television studiovisible behind a glass wall, and twoperformance spaces. MoCADA,too, plans to move in the next fourto five years to a permanent homein a building on Fulton Street.

You can just see it accelerating,said BRIC Executive Director LeslieSchwartz. Theres a critical mass ofarts organizations. I think its goingto be like Museum Mile in Manhattan.

This borough has more artists thanany other borough in NYC, and thatcomes across in every aspect bars,cafs, night clubs, houses of worship,books, says Laurie Cumbo, executive

director of MoCADA. In a worldwhere everything is becominghomogenous, I think what makesBrooklyn so special is that the artscommunity continues to createunique and special opportunitiesand experiences in so many differentways. And I think thats why peoplecome here.

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Reported by Anne ByrdBrooklyn, NY



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TargNeig

Arts

CoreBusi

Feat

Percentage of Workersin Creative Occupation

6.3%

Percentage ofIndependent Businesses

91%


97

Number of Arts-RelatedBusinesses

30

Number of Arts-RelatedNon-Profit Organizations

76

Number of IndicatorBusinesses

722

The Majestic Theater on Elm4

City Tavern Dallas Black Dance Theatre Dallas Museum of Art

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Nasher Sculpture Center

The Winspear Opera House

Jorges Tex-Mex Caf

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The Dallas Symphony Orchestra

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Living Next Doorto the Arts District

While Dallas formal arts scenehas its faithful supporters, the cityis also fostering an authenticand organic grassroots arts scenea few blocks east in Deep Ellumand Exposition Park. As BrentneyHamilton wrote in the DallasObserver in July 2012, the roleof the artist has from the dawnof creative expression been oneof counterculture. And while we lovethat our named venues [such asATT PAC] bring in the type of workone will find in textbooks, grassrootscollectives complete the cycle.

Kettle Art, a not-for-profit galleryspace in Deep Ellum and a hotbedof Dallas art and music, is a goodexample. Since 2005 this brainchildof local artists Frank Campagna andKirk Hopper has brought life backto the streets of Deep Ellum with

its unique take on what galleryshows should be and its connectionto established galleries such asHoppers namesake, Kirk HopperFine Arts, and the nearby BarryWhistler Gallery.

Just down Main Street are artistresidencies 500X Gallery andCentralTrak: the UT Dallas ArtistsResidency. 500X is Texas oldestartist-run cooperative gallery.Established in 1978 with the goalof providing a professional exhibitionvenue free of outside influencesand dealer restrictions, it alsogives artists a place to live: Roomsare for rent in the back of the gallery.CentralTrak, a block away, providesspace for eight artists to live, work,and exhibit, and also serves asa community center for discourseabout the arts.

Deep Ellum has a smorgasbordof choices when it comes to dinneror drinks. Twisted Root BurgerCompany is a local favorite,as is Pepes & Mitos Mexican Caffor fajitas. D Magazine says that

Tom Colicchios Craft Steakhousehas what is reputed to be the bestcocktail in town, called, irreverently,the Grassy Knoll. Sushi, V ietnamese,Chinese, French, and other cuisinesrub shoulders with the inevitableBBQ and Mexican joints.

Nighttime concert at The Nasher

Santas on Main Street

This kind of energyand vibrancy was whatthe city envisionedwhen the [arts] centerwas created.

Can you manufacture an artsneighborhood from scratch?The Dallas Arts District makesa solid case that you can. Today

it is a neighborhood in transition,buzzing with new arts activitybut lacking a community of residents

like the ones in nearby Deep Ellumand Exposition Park, which percolatearound the clock. In the near futurethese neighborhoods may grow

together into a cohesive community,connected by the arts.

Startingfrom Scratch

Starting in the early 1970s the Cityof Dallas hired a series of consultantsto determine how and where to houseits arts institutions. They decided thatthe northeast corner of downtownwould be a prime spot because of itseasy access from multiple freeways.The construction in 1984 of the DallasMuseum of Art (DMA) was the firstproject to be completed, andthe opening in 20 09 of the AT&TPerforming Arts Center (ATT PAC)

was the culmination of that vision.Today the Arts District is the meetingground for the citys visual andperforming arts institutions. It isthe largest arts district in the nation,spanning 68 acres and 19 contiguousblocks alongside the WoodallRodgers Freeway just southeastof the City Center. It draws morethan 1.5 million ticketed visitorsa year and has created more than$128 million in economic impact.Thirteen major arts organizationscall the district home, including DMA,ATT PAC, Dallas Black Dance Theatre,Dallas Symphony Orchestra, DallasTheater Center, Morton H. MeyersonSymphony Center, Nasher SculptureCenter, Trammell Crow Center,and the Trammell & Margaret CrowCollection of Asian Art. Many ofthese museums and theaters arehoused in dramatic new buildingsdesigned by such famed architectsas I.M. Pei, Renzo Piano, NormanFoster and Rem Koolhaas. TheWinspear Opera House is wrappedwith a dramatic glass faade that

retracts to open the lobby and cafonto the plaza. Klyde WarrenPark and City Performance Hallare attractive new features.

Booker T. Washington High Schoolfor the Performing and Visual Arts,housed in a 1922 building, providesa link to the past among allthe contemporary constructions.The school contributes to the artisticlandscape by staging numerousin-house shows, providing the venue

for the annual Dance for the Planetdance festival and installing workfor AURORAa public art seriesthat challenges emerging andestablished artists from aroundthe country to create site-specificinstallations of light, sound,performance and projection art.

Other events that keep the ArtsDistrict active include the DallasMuseum of Arts Late Nights andJazz in the Park and movie nightsat the Nasher Sculpture Center.Both have attracted thousandsof visitors to the district.

As for food, One Arts Plaza offersfive upscale options for lunch anddinner, and the highly popular foodtrucks have found a new homeat ATT PAC. These trucks havebecome one of downtowns most

popular and successful attractions,says Doug Curtis, president andchief executive officer of ATTPAC.

This kind of energy and vibrancywas what the city envisionedwhen the center was created.

[H]undreds, if not

thousands, of new units are required tthe district the urbadensity it needs to t

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ourtesyofFlickrusersherihall

Reported by Danielle Georgiou

Completingthe Picture

In the nearby Arts District the foodtrucks and the restaurants at OneArts Plaza comprise the few diningoptions, and the only residentialdevelopment is One Arts, with61 luxury apartments. As BlairKamin, architecture critic forThe Chic ago Tribune, put it in 2011,

[H]undreds, if not thousands,

of new housing units are requiredto lend the district the urban densityit needs to thrive.

That could be cIn November 2the outline of a a collaborative of the citys mainstitutions, witthe Arts Districneighborhood. of local arts lea

the catalyst theleverage fully tinvestment the

Dallas, TX



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The Cinerama Dome at the Arclight

Hollywood and Highland Complex Hollywood Walk of FameThe Magic Castle

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Hollywood Boulevard

Crossroads of the World creative office space

Amoeba Music

Hollywood Farmers Market

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Los Angeles, CA

Central Hollywood

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Musso and Frank Grill

The Slipper and the Rose at Arclight Cinemas

Theres more talent in

Hollywood than in anyother city in the country.

In 1965 film composer Oscar Levantfamously wrote, Strip away thephony tinsel of Hollywood and youllfind the real tinsel. The tourist-filledarea around Sunset Boulevard nearVine certainly contains more than itsshare of glitz, with GraumansChinese Theatre, the Hollywood Walkof Fame and Madame Tussauds WaxMuseum all within a few blocks.But the neighborhood also contains

some hidden gold, with a thrivingpopulation of agents, scene bui lders,music mavens and magiciansmaking their homes in the shadowof the Hollywood sign.

The talent is here, says Doug Miller,chief executive officer of Zen Arts,an international booker of bellydancers, trapeze artists and firedancers, by way of explaining whyhe based his business in Hollywood.

Theres more talent in Hollywoodthan in any other city in the country.Agencies like William Kerwin Agency,Envision Entertainment, Elaine CraigVoice Casting and DDO Artists Agencyall have their offices nearby.

We have an office in Santa Monicaas well, but this is really a centralhub, explains Miller. L.A. is very

segregated, and it can be hardto get around. From here, we caneasily get downtown or to the Valleyor over to the Westside.

Post-production studios such asDigital Jungle, Light Iron andPrimeFocus Group are a stonesthrow in any direction. PrimeFocushas a steady stream of work fromBollywood, while Digital Jungle hasproduced movie trailers for The

Bourne Identity and Texas ChainsawMassacre 2. In the shadow of theiconic Capitol Records building aremusic studios and small labelsincluding Delicious Vinyl, SunsetSound, and Hilltop Records. Andthe OMEGA Cinema prop shop is rightaround the corner, able to supplyanything from a Wild West saloonbar to a hospital gurney.

Just a couple blocks away theAcademy of Magical Arts at the MagicCastle has been thriving since the1960s. A members-only club forprofessional magicians, it is a meccafor international conjurors but alsoadmits tourists if they stay in thenearby Magic Castle Hotel. Magiciansincluding Justin Lefkovitch and CurtisLovell make their homes nearby.

Walking withthe Stars

The behemoth of the local sceneis the Hollywood Highland Center,a massive mall that looks like itwas designed by Cecil B. DeMille.The center has swallowed the historicChinese Theatres and also includesthe Dolby Theatre (home of theOscars and a long-running Cirque duSoleil show). Swarming with tourists,it also attracts some locals with ahigh-end bowling alley and shops.Just across the street, Disney hasestablished a permanent presence onthe strip with the El Capitan theater,featuring premieres and re-releases

of Disney favorites. And of course theHollywood Walk of Fame attractsvisitors hoping to pose with theirfavorite celebrities stars.

Its a fun area, if a little touristy,says area resident Chris Loos ashe and his wife Natasha step out ofthe Arclight Cinemas Hollywood.

But the tourists mostly stick tothe Hollywood Boulevard area.The Arclight, a high-end, reserved-seating theater built aroundthe historic Cinerama Dome, isthe anchor for this more resident-friendly section of Sunset. Justacross the street is Amoeba Records,known for its encyclopedic collectionof CDs and vinyl and servingthe myriad composers, musicians

and music editors who live nearby.

Restaurants are

starting to come outhe sidewalk, foodculture is starting tbecome more visib

Its always been a challengeto give people who live inthe hills a reason to comedown here and visit. I thinkwere finally starting tobreak down those barriers.

Reported by Tim Halbur

Classics andNewcomers Mix

Since the neighborhood underwenta redevelopment effort aroundthe turn of the millennium newdevelopments with street-levelcommercial space have quicklyfilled with restaurants. The HungryCat, an inventive seafood spot, iswell respected among foodies.Wood + Vine touts its market-driven cuisine and classic cocktails.And Musso and Franks, theneighborhoods oldest restaurant,offers a true taste of old Hollywoodglamour.

Loteria Grill on Hollywood Boulevardis another recent addition, a branchof a popular local restaurant startedby chef Jimmy Shaw. Bon Apptitmagazine named Shaw L.A.s BestMexican Chef and this Hollywoodsite gave him more cachet than hisFarmers Market stand. Loteria hasbecome a real anchor for us, saysCarol Stakenas, executive directorof Los Angeles ContemporaryExhibitions (LACE), an artist-drivenexhibition space in the neighborhood.

Its always been a challenge to givepeople who live in the hills a reasonto come down here and visit. I thinkwere finally starting to break downthose barriers.

Los Angeles, CA

Central Hollywood

LACE moved from downtownLos Angeles to Hollywood in 1997through a deal with the CommunityRedevelopment Agency. The idea wasthat LACE would be a cultural magnetfor the area. There really is localleadership around art and culture,says Stakenas.

Over the last decade, the Los AngelesPlanning Department has targetedHollywood as a prime candidate for

growth. The neighborhood has twomajor subway stops and the conceptof transit-oriented development

-- concentrating new growth aroundtransit stops to reduce car use -- iswidely embraced. There are a numberof historic multi-story apartmentbuildings already in place, but theurban fabric can still absorb a lot ofnew density. A newly proposedHollywood plan involves increasingthe local height restriction from 20to 50 stories.

One of the most recent projectsto be approved is Blvd 6200, a535-unit mixed-use developmenton Hollywood between Argyleand El Centro avenues.

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Books & Books

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The Fillmore at Jackie Gleason Theater Lincoln Road

Art Center1 2

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Jerrys Famous Deli

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Espaola Way

Indoorsand Outdoors

Its a balmy Saturday night in MiamiBeach. The sky has cleared andpeople of all ages and walks of lifeare setting up blankets and lawnchairs at SoundScape, a 2.5-acrepublic park at the intersection of17th Street and Washington Avenue an area referred to by some as

the new heart of South Beach.

Designed by Dutch architecturalfirm West 8, the outdoor spaceadjoins the Frank Gehry-designedNew World Center, home of theNew World Symphony, a musicalteaching academy established in1987 by artistic director MichaelTilson Thomas and the Arison family,owners of Carnival Cruises andthe Miami Heat.

The symphony moved to its newstate-of-the-art facility in 2011,part of a $160 million complex whichincludes SoundScape and, asindicator of the degree to whichdesign has taken center stage here,a Gehry-designed parking garage.

Tonights outdoor crowd, which willexceed 1,500, is watching a symphonyperformance via broadcast fromthe concert hall onto the buildings7,000-square-foot projection wall.

I prefer the outdoor experiencebecause I get to socialize and see

friends. I like that I can dresscomfortably, and theres no velvetrope, says Gayle Durham, a residentof nearby West Avenue who frequentsthese Wallcasts. A variety offree concerts and films is offeredthroughout the year.

Brazilian natives Elizabeth Camargoand her husband Jose Lutsky preferto experience the symphony indoors.Ticket-holders since 1995, the Beachresidents also attend many culturalevents at the nearby Colony Theatreon Lincoln Road. Its great to be ableto go for a walk or out to eat afterthe show, says Camargo, an architect.

Art and Cultureon the Beach

Today, Lincoln Road betweenWashington Avenue and Alton Roadis a bustling pedestrian mall, a go-todestination for tourists and localsalike with shops, galleries, a movietheater and a Herzog & de Meuron-designed parking garage, often usedfor high- end social and arts eventsand as a backdrop for fashion shoots.

Head south on Washington Avenuepast countless t-shirt stores, bodegasand pizzerias and youll find the WorldErotic Museum of Art, with phallusesgalore on exhibit; Miami BeachCinemathque, an independent filmhouse located in the former historicCity Hall; and The Wolfsonian,a modern art and design museumthat opened in 1995.

The artistic focal point of our area isdefinitely The Wolfsonian, with itsextensive proprietary collections andculturally stimulating new exhibitsmonthly, says Ray Schnitzer, ownerof the 11th Street Diner, a 24-hour-a-day restaurant/bar across the streetfrom the museum. The diner recentlycelebrated its 20th anniversary,a rarity for businesses on thesomewhat neglected WashingtonAvenue. Schnitzer says that overthe years his clientele has shiftedfrom predominantly gay andbohemian to a more eclecticmixture of approximately 40 percentlocals and 60 percent tourists fromaround the world.

Art BaselBuilds Cred

North of Lincoln Road is the FillmoreMiami Beach, formerly the Jackie

Gleason Theater, and the aging MiamiBeach Convention Center, home ofthe highly prestigious Art Basel,which is celebrating its 11th year inMiami Beach. A few blocks to thenorth in the Collins Park area is theMiami Beach Holocaust Memorial,the newly renovated Miami BeachBotanical Garden, the newlyexpanded Bass Art Museum, the new

Miami Beach Regional Libraryand the Miami City Ballet. Coming

soon: a parking garage by famedIraqi-British architect Zaha Hadid.

Art Basel was the catalyst forexpanding the arts into the CollinsPark area, says Ray Breslin,president of the Collins ParkNeighborhood Association. Asa result, property values haveskyrocketed, and Collins Park iscatapulting into a major destination.

I prefer the outdoorexperience becauseI get to socialize and seefriends. I like thatI can dress comfortably,and theres no velvet rope.



Reported by Debbie Liebowitz

PastelPalaces

Yes, Miami Beach has experiencedan arts evolution over the pastdecade or so. But to understand thetransformation fully, its necessaryto look back to the mid-1970s andearly 1980s in South Beachs ArtDeco District, between 6th Streetand 23rd Street.

The citys leadership was totallyreluctant to designate Ocean Driveand Collins Avenue as historicdistricts. They wanted to demolisheverything and build conventionhotels, recalls Nancy Liebman,a former executive director ofthe Miami Design PreservationLeague and former Miami Beachcommissioner.

The now-famous hotels weresaved in 1979 with a federal historicdesignation.

According to Liebman, when thecitys Planning Board chairmanwas shown the proposed colorpalette for the historic hotels, hecommented, Are you crazy? It lookslike houses of prostitution. Thosejewel-tone d hotels, co mbined withyear-round good weather, cheaphotel rooms and financial incentivesfor redevelopment including amoratorium on new building in thearea, made South Beach attractiveto high-fashion photographers,producers, designers and models.

The arrival of the likes of BruceWebber and Gianni Versace attractedartists, a large gay population and alot of tourists in short, people whoneeded places to live, work, eat, drinkand cavort. As the senior-citizenpopulation in the area started todwindle, young entrepreneursdiscovered Americas Riviera, saidJeff Cohen, a real estate developerwho owned the popular China Club

on Collins Avenue in the late 1980sand early 1990s. Today the sitehouses Jerrys Famous Deli.

The Miami Vice era brought nationalattention to Miami Beach and itshigh-end, wild lifestyle. It was thatinflux of money and tourist dollars,along with help from the Miami BeachDevelopment Corporation, thatprovided funds to help restore SouthBeach and the surrounding neighbor-hoods, said Dennis Scholl, vicepresident for arts for the John S.and James L. Knight Foundation.

The passion of cultural creativesand art lovers for the design andarchitectural sensibility of the ArtDeco district also played an importantrole in the restoration of the placeI call home, South Beach.

In 1984, the CitCommunity Defunds to createFlorida, which along Lincoln Raffordable worexposure for vistime the area wdilapidated, buthas expanded aas being a catal

of Lincoln Roadneighborhood.

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Bastille Days celebration

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Milwaukees Crown Jewel,Nestled in East Town

We look at ourselves as the crazy

weird uncle of the arts community,says Andrew Nelson, public relationsmanager of the Pabst Theater.The Pabst hosts 450 shows a year,bringing in acts as diverse as BillCosby, Rachel Maddow and NeilYoung, and it holds the U.S. recordfor the longest continuously-runningproduction of A Christmas Carol.

A big thing thats trending is ourcomedy scene, Nelson adds.

Louis CK filmed his special here, andit won an Academy Award.

Michael Cudahy

philanthropist athe arts, boughthe City of MilwCudahy and theyears and morefinding their nicbuilt in 1895 as theater, is consrivaling those inacts. Cudahy alTheater in 2009 Hall Ballroom jAll three are his

City of Festivals

During the summer Milwaukee hostsa packed calendar of outdoor eventsjust steps away from East Town,including the Milwaukee Art Museu msLakefront Festival of the Arts andSummerfest, the worlds largestoutdoor music festival. There isenough going on all year that the cityhas picked up the nickname Cityof Festivals. East Town boasts twoof the citys most diverse festivals:Bastille Days, started in 1982, and Jazzin the Park, which is almost too big forits own space, says Niehaus. EveryThursday between June and SeptemberJazz in the Park draws an average of8,000 people to Cathedral Square Parkin the heart of East Town, where theyprop up their lawn chairs or lay outtheir blankets to eat, drink and listento jazz, funk, reggae or blues.

Thode and Hatcseeing more rein East Town. Nits vibrant artsstill makes theand young profa place to call always been thdowntown houa stable neighbCasanova notenever left dowbeen a crucial revitalization o

TV on the Radio at the Pabst Theater

Pulseof the City

Neon signs for the Bad Genie barand the Water Street Brewery glowagainst the twilight sky of Milwaukeeon a Friday night as Kirk Thode, anative Illinoisan, and his 30-some-thing friends stroll from his condoto the performing arts center fora show. Next theyll head to the

Rumpus Room for dinner, thenthe Belmont for drinks, and finallymaybe a late night bite at Elsason the Park. East Town is the heartof the city, says Thode. Itsan attractive, vibrant area,and a walkable community.

Saturday morning, Lisa Hatchfinishes with downward-dog andmountain yoga poses beneaththe elegant wings of the MilwaukeeArt Museums grand hall, overlookingLake Michigan. Shes ready fora long walk with her husband andpopping in and out of art galleriesbefore preparing for a night outwith neighbors.

Bursting at the seams with work,play and downtown living options,East Town begins just east of theMilwaukee River on N. Water Street,where three performance power-houses stand in a row. The neighbor-hood also boasts several art galleriesincluding the David Barnett Gallery,

established in 1966 and representingmore than 600 artists. The MilwaukeeFilm Festival makes its home inEast Town and has seen attendancegrow 40 percent from 2011, to 50,000people in 2012. The neighborhoodsnorthern border, E. Ogden Avenue,is a trailing potpourri of duplexes,condos and townhomes leadingto a bluff overlooking Lake Michigan,the eastern border. Below the bluffand running parallel to the lakefrontis N. Lincoln Memorial Drive. Tuckedbetween the drive and the lakefrontare the War Memorial Center,the Milwaukee Art Museum with itssculptural, postmodern 217-foot

wings atop a pavilion designed bySantiago Calatrava, and DiscoveryWorld Museum. East Townssouthern perimeter gives way toHighway 794 and the Historic ThirdWard, a neighboring arts community,along E. Clybourn Street.

The Epicenter forthe Performing Arts

We hear over and over that one of the

leading factors that cause peopleto move or stay downtown is the arts,says Dan Casanova, senior economicdevelopment specialist at the City ofMilwaukee. The Marcus PerformingArts Center is certainly one of theattractors. We are the largest drawfor people coming to downtownMilwaukee for the performing arts,bringing in 700,000 people a year,says Paul Mathews, its chief executiveofficer. The center has threeperformance spaces and an outdoorpavilion, and hosts touring companiesand major local art groups includingthe Milwaukee Ballet, FlorentineOpera, Milwaukee SymphonyOrchestra, First Stage ChildrensTheater and Hansberry-SandsTheater, the citys 3-year-oldAfrican-American theater company.

The quality and quantity of the arts

in and around East Town cannot befound anywhere else in the state ofWisconsin, giving the neighborhooda great competitive advantage, saysCasanova. 20 percent of the localtheater-going audience comes fromout of town, primarily from nor thernIllinois, according to Casanova.

Built in 1969, the center has spurredother arts groups to move downtownand has generated restaurantbusiness up and down N. WaterStreet, one of the areas maincorridors. What weve seen in thelast 10 to 15 years is that people aremoving back to downtown, saysMilwaukee Symphony Orchestraexecutive director Mark Niehaus.

The increase is definitely drivenby new condos and incredible newrestaurants.

The quality and quantityof the arts in and aroundEast Town cannot be foundanywhere else in the stateof Wisconsin, givingthe neighborhood a greatcompetitive advantage.

CourtesyofFlickrusereytonz

Reported by Kenya Evans

Changes, Condosand Cool Kids

Beginning in the late 1980s theretreat to suburban living started toreverse itself. Downtown Milwau-kees Historic Third Ward, adjacentto East Town, began renovating oldbuildings into lofts, and soonconstruction and renovation forcondos began in East Town.

The vibrancy of the Third Wardaffects East Town, says Hatch, whomoved to East Town with her husbandto downsize from their large familyhome. An enormous influx of peoplein their 30s is moving here; peopleare biking more, and the use of publictransportation has increased.

East Town wasnt always so youthful.Milwaukee is recovering from, andstill fighting, a significant brain drain.

We looked at how Milwaukee islosing human capital, and we triedto change the lack of a cool factor,says Jeremy Fojut, president of ArtMilwaukee, a networking group thatshowcases artists of every mediumat different locations in downtown

Milwaukee. Art Milwaukee oftenworks in tandem with two othercreative agencies, MiKE (Innovationin Milwaukee) and NEWaukee, bothfounded with the mission to improvethe city by making it a cool placeto live. MiKE works with city officialsto spark business innovation by

fostering collaborations andentrepreneurial efforts. NEWaukeetargets young professionals foroutings that offer a new look atMilwaukee. In two years, weve gonefrom zero to 20,000 subscribers allby word of mouth, says Fojut aboutArt Milwaukee. Weve been buildinga city-wide rebranding campaign.

The areas swelling popularityhas left few properties available forresidential growth. As a result,nearby neighborhoods like Westown,the Third Ward, Brady Street and theBeerline all saw substantial growthin the last decade, adds Casanova.

Milwaukee, WI


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Looking tothe Future

Given the unidirectional nature ofManhattan development, in whichreal estate prices climb as livablespace grows scarce, Palumbo admitsto uncertainty about the future.El Taller has s truggled financiallyfrom time to time, and supports itselfin part with language instruction.

But its exactly shaped all emein the city, inclu

We survive, hwe are New Yo

La Perla Garden

Manhattan Valley Historic District

Street Market

Amsterdam Avenue betweenW. 108th and 109th streets is linedon its eastern side with the typesof homegrown businesses thatcharacterize Manhattan Valley andrender it different from other morecorporatized pockets of the WestSide. Strolling south to north alongthe avenue, visitors will find a karateacademy; a combined hair salon,tailor, and dry cleaner; a hardwarestore with old wooden doors; a largemeat market; the offices of the localBusiness Improvement District; apottery studio; and a restaurant andtavern named the Lions Head. Ona weekend afternoon the clean,five-story tenements present animage of urban solidity punctuated

by splashy awnings at street level.Passers-by greet one another and fillthe neighborhood with a verve andspontaneity that can only take placein healthy communities.

It doesnt matter whether youre ahigh school student or law professorat Columbia, asserts Outi Putkonen,co-owner of Mugi, the pottery studio,which has been operating since 1983.

Once you are here in this setting,it all gets leveled off. Putkonenbelieves Mugi represents the bestManhattan Valley has to offer:a place where diverse residentscan interact and celebrate theiridentity as New Yorkers. Art, and thecreative excitement that goes alongwith it, is the force that has broughtthem together.

I think the greatest contributionwe give to the neighborhood, shereflects amid the colorful glazed

bowls and student-made vases thatfill Mugis shelves, is that we area resource for people to comeand participate, hands-on. It reallygoes across all different layersof the socio-demographics here.

A UniqueNeighborhood

A conversation with Putkonen leadsnaturally to questions about theManhattan Valley neighborhood,which occupies a distinctive placein the urban landscape of New York.Known in its early years asBloomingdale, this flag-shaped areabegins along the northwestern edgeof Central Park and extends westtoward the Hudson River, boundedby W. 96th Street W. 110th Street.Columbia University lies to theimmediate north above W. 110thStreet, and the expensive Upper WestSide to the south; but ManhattanValley, while drawing on the

resources and strengths of bothneighborhoods, is regarded byresidents as being part of neither.

It feels so different from whatpeople call the Upper West Side,observes Ishmael Wallace, a pianistand neighborhood resident whofounded the classical musicensemble Orfeo Duo with his sister,violinist Vita Wallace. Part of itis just that we are further from thecenters of power. And this hasalways been true, since thebeginning of the 20th century.Manhattan Valley had the advantage,culturally, of being a little bitmarginal but not very marginal.

This sense of being apart, slightlyoutside the centers of commerce,academia, and officialdom, hasalways characterized Manhattan

Valley. By the last decades of the 19th century, following thedevelopment of elevated trainsthat accompanied the citysnorthward expansion, the area hadbecome a middle-class enclavepopulated by German and Irishimmigrants.

Architectural traces of that worldremain in the Manhattan AvenueHistoric District, two blocks ofpicturesque row houses combiningGothic and Romanesque elements,and in the former New York CancerHospital, a remarkable aggregationof brick and brownstone turrets nowlandmarked and converted intoresidences. Today, Manhattan Valleysuniqueness is evident in the varietyof its buildings 1890s walk-uptenements sit alongside tower in thepark renewal projects from the1950s and, most valuably, its people.

This area is incredible, enthuses

Peter Arndsten, head of theColumbus-Amsterdam BusinessImprovement District. Youve got adiversity of ages, ethnic backgrounds,and languages; plus, everythingfrom the superintendents andporters who make the buildingswork to firemen and policemen,and musicians and artists.

Each spring Arndstens organizationtakes over a section of AmsterdamAvenue to host Manhattan ValleyFamily Days, street celebrationsinvolving local businesses such asMugi Pottery and La Toulousaine,a nearby French bakery. Ishmaeland Vita Wallace of Orfeo Duo alsoparticipate in Family Days, installinga booth where they help localresidents write their own songs.

We survive because

we are New York.

Part of it is just thatwe are further fromthe centers of power.And this has always beentrue, since the beginningof the 20th century.Manhattan Valley

had the advantage,culturally, of beinga little bit marginalbut not very marginal.

Its nice for peopleto come by, so theycan experiencewhat were about.


Reported by David Vreeland

We encourage them to think aboutwhat they perceive through thedifferent senses on their block,Ishmael explains. What they see,

what they hear, what they smell, andthen also what they would love to seewhich isnt currently there. We askthem to sing the music to us, inthe moment; we write it down, andtheyre able to leave with a copyof their song.

Weve discovered that everybodyhas a kind of haunted music withinthem: one time, two teen-age girlscame up on their bikes and madea song, together.

Some years ago when Vita andIshmael decided to organize aperformance that would reflect andembrace the many nationalitiesthriving within the community, theyfound their way to El Taller TheWorkshop. This Latin-American artscollective, gallery, and music spaceoccupies the top floor of another

Manhattan Valley landmark, a formerHorn & Hardart Automat.

Decades ago, budget-consciousdiners armed with nickels came hereto extract chicken pot pies and otherhome-style lunches and dinners

from tiny glass windows arrangedlike boxes in a jewelry chest.

Today the buildings faade, drapedwith colorful terra cotta, is warmand inviting. Inside, El Tallers founderand director, Bernardo Palumbo,offers his hand in a gesture offriendship.

Its nice for people to come by, sothey can experience what wereabout, he says as the wooden floorin El Tallers large sunlit studiorumbles with the movement of salsadancers. A poetic presence withmane-like hair, Palumbo composedhits in his native Argentina beforemoving to New York in 1969. Tenyears later he opened El Taller inChelsea, later moved it to the EastVillage, and, finally, in 1996, broughtit to Manhattan Valley a migration

that, he jokes, parallels the historyof gentrification in Manhattan.

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The NextWave

Oakland at the turn of the millennium

looked very different from the citythat was ranked as one of the topplaces to go in 2012 by the New YorkTimes, Anna Carey wrote recentlyin The Daily Californian. Since then,the sparse neighborhoods of desolatebuildings and fast-food restaurantshave been replaced by art galleries,restaurants and new businesses.

What is responsible for this new turnin Oaklands fortunes? Much of thecredit can go to Oakland Art Murmur,a First Friday art walk that started in2005 when a small handful of galleriesin Uptown to the north startedpromoting a monthly gathering.

As it turns out, the same people whogo to the galleries also want to eatand drink, so it has encouraged morerestaurants and bars to open, saysDanielle Fox, director of Art Murmur.

Having more people out and morerestaurants and bars has encouragedmore galleries to open, and so thecycle continues.

Recent attenda

that 20,000 peoeach First Fridavenues like ShaCrown Royal anContemporary,at Lukas Taproeven the still-a

Any city would and excitementMurmur, says really organic ethe people whobottom-up ene

So has OaklandThe citys econoremain: In somand around dowpercent of resiBut with a strothe arts, a thrivrestaurant and

is experiencinghasnt been se

A TrueUnderdog

Long the neglected s tepsisterof San Francisco, Oaklands timemay finally have come. The New YorkTimes ranked the city fifth in its listof the 45 Places To Go in 2012.And thats not just in the UnitedStates, but in the world, behindonly Panama, Helsinki, Myanmarand London. The Times singledout the restored art-deco FoxTheatre as a local star and bubbledwith excitement about hot new chefssetting up shop in downtown Oakland.

Fifteen years ago this recognitionwould have been unthinkable.Downtown Oakland and thesurrounding area were struggling tostay afloat, and vacancies and neglectwere the norm. An urban renewalplan implemented in the late 1950shad had a disastrous effect on thecity, cutting off downtown from thewaterfront and giving prominentplace to Brutalist structures housingthe county jail and a postal facility.A small dive called The Stork Clubdrew a dedicated few across the Bayfor indie bands, but at the time it

was a lone pioneer in an otherwisedepressed landscape. It was like theOld West out here, like a ghost townat night, says Jeff Hull, a local artist.

Forgingan Identity

A number of factors helped rouseOakland from the doldrums,including the election as mayor in1999 of current California Gov. JerryBrown. Brown took it as his missionto bring 10,000 new residents todowntown, and streamlined thedevelopment process to encourage

the construction of new condobuildings throughout the city andparticularly in Jack London Square,the historic waterfront area. WhileBrowns plan fell short of its goal,the final tally credits him with 3,549new housing units.

Two years before Brown took officea local institution called Yoshis,combining sushi and top-shelf jazzacts, had been convinced torelocate to Jack London Square.The new site became the premierjazz venue on the West Co ast an dan early anchor for Oaklandsrevitalization as local businessesstruggled to get a foothold. In 1999local BBQ staple Everett & Jonesopened a sit-down establishmenta few blocks away, serving a meanplate of hot links and providing

a neighborhood hangout for thecitys African-American community.

In 2003 as the dot-com boom waspushing artists out of San Franciscoand into cheaper space across thewater, a unique organization calledThe Crucible opened its new facilityjust wes t of downtow n. Establi shedby a handful of artists working onlarge metal sculptures, The Crucible

quickly attracted a unique cyberpunk/Burning Man-related crowd eagerto express itself through welding,forging and a yearly Fire Arts Festival.

The incredible success of BurningMan and the Black Rock Foundationbrought a lot of new funding for largepublic art to the Bay Area, saidSarah Filley, a local arts leader.

A lot of the funding went to projectsmeant for the Burning Man Festival,but it established a funding structurethat supports local work as well.That laid the groundwork for theindustrial arts movement and a prettyrobust culture of sharing knowledgeand skills like glassmaking, welding,and robotics.

When we started,

there was a 35-percentvacancy rate and nota lot of lingering,so the perception wasthat Oakland wasstill deserted andunsafe. Todaythats really changed.

Oakland at the turnmillennium looked vdifferent from the cwas ranked as onethe top places to goby the New York Tim

Reported by Tim Halbur

RevivingOld Oakland

Within a half-mile radius of the

epicenter of arts activity in the cityare four distinct neighborhoods Jack London, Chinatown, downtown,and Old Oakland. In the late 1990sOld Oakland would have seemedlike the least likely site for revival,bordered by housing projects, thefreeway and the jail. But a handful ofdedicated people of vision like SarahFilley revitalized it through sheerperseverance. Oakland didnt havethe retail to fill in that eco-systemthat you need for a sustainable city,said Filley, but we had such a greatcreative base. So we worked toreframe the impact.

We turns out to be Filley and herfriend and restaurateur AlfonsoDominguez, who together launched aproject called popuphood. Local andindependent small businesses apply

on popuphoods website to activatepreviously vacant or new commercial

storefronts, which become

showcases for their work. Whenwe started, there was a 35-percentvacancy rate and not a lot oflingering, so the perception was thatOakland was still deserted andunsafe. Today thats really changed,said Filley. The project has filledeight spaces in Old Oakland withgalleries and shops, and localdevelopers are expressing interestin working with popuphood.

Dominguezs restaurant, TamarindoAntojeria Mexicana, serves Mexicansmall plates, while nearby tavernThe Trappist has the best selectionof Belgian beer in the Bay. Caffe 817is the downtowners staple for abusiness lunch, to be consumedsitting outside under the oak trees.For those in a hurry, RattosInternational Market and Deli will

make a prosciutto panini to go.

Chinatown

While the success of downtownhas ebbed and flowed, Chinatownhas remained a constant. Less in thespotlight than San Franciscos famousChinatown, Oaklands neighborhoodfeels more laid back. It has alsoresisted much of the expansion takingplace nearby, continuing as a primarilyAsian enclave with its own growingarts and cultural programs. Localslike Sherlyn Chew, leader of theCalifornia Chinese Orchestra, say thatlocal restaurants and businesses aredefinitely feeling the effect on theirbottom lines of the neighborhoods

First Friday art w alk. And weveseen more cultural sharing thereseven a star African-American singernow at the Cantonese Opera House onWebster, she says.

Of course having tasty restaurantsalso helps keep people comingto Chinatown. Legendary Palace onFranklin is the go-to spot for dimsum. Just down the block is the bestVietnamese banh mi in the Bay Area,squeezed between tiny Chinesemarkets. The younger, hipperresidents can be found at Spices 3,which offers a Taiwanese take onSzechuan food that is spicier thanthe average Westerner has evertasted, with dishes like NumbingSpicy Cucumber and Salt & PepperStinky Tofu.

Chinatown also has its own JerryBrown-era condo building, the157-unit Eight Orchids. The unitssold at auction after the housingcrash of 2008, but the buildingstands as a reminder of Browns goalof more people downtown.

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Live Arts Festival/Philly Fringe Feastival on the waterfront

2nd Street

When Terrence Nolen and hisco-founders began searching fora permanent home for PhiladelphiasArden Theatre Company, they foundthemselves returning again and againto the neighborhood of Old City.

We kept hearing it was up andcoming, Nolen recalls, and we lovedits proximity to public transportationand to the historic district.

That was 17 years ago. Today, morethan 100,000 theatergoers each yearwalk through the doors of the formership parts factory that now housestwo black-box theaters.

Former Philadelphia Mayor andPennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendellroutinely cites the theater asa catalyst in rejuvenating Old Cityfrom a quiet neighborhood of emptywarehouses and a handful ofgalleries into a thriving arts district.Next year, the Arden beginsa $6 million renovation ofa neighboring building to houseanother auditorium, rehearsalspaces and classrooms.

Weve been looking to expand foryears, says Nolen, but mostof the Old City buildings havealready been adapted for reuse.The transformation of theneighborhood into a destinationis absolutely remarkable.

An IndustrialPast

The stately cast-iron factory buildings

that Nolen so loves and the hiddenbrick-lined alleys behind them provideliving testimony to an industrial pastthat resonates with todays creatives.But along N. 2nd and N. 3rd Streetsthis mix of old and new remainssubtle. Old City doesnt proclaimits hipness, but waits for it to bediscovered. At the tiny-batch roasterOld City Coffee, the paint-spatteredmuralist chatting with the architectholding rolled-up drawings knowsthis, and so does the web designerworking at his iPad at the next table.

Still, the presence of two dozen artgalleries, several performing artsorganizations including the Arden,the Painted Bride Art Center(founded in 1969 as a lonely outpostfor avant-garde dance and music),the Live Arts Festival & Philly Fringe

and some 75 internet, branding,

graphic, photography, and

architecture studios places theneighborhood at an exciting nexusof technology, design, and the arts.

I chose Old City 15 years ago becauseof the eclectic mix of galleries, loftspace and its artsy feel, says EllenYin, owner of Fork, one of the areasearly destination restaurants. Sincethen, its become home to independentfashion retailers, design firms, andhigh-tech companies but the thingsthat initially drew me are still here.

Art has been a constant, agreesChristine Pfister, a Swiss immigrantwhose Pentimenti Gallery opened in1992. We were the seventh galleryin the neighborhood, she remembers.

A bunch more came along very soon,and the Old City Art Associationwas formed. The idea of the areabecoming something similar to SoHo

really began to have a domino effect.

Weve been looking toexpand for years butmost of the Old Citybuildings have alreadybeen adapted for reuse.The transformation ofthe neighborhood into a

destination is absolutelyremarkable.

I chose Old City 15 yearsago because of the eclecticmix of galleries, loftspace and its artsy feel.

CourtesyofRobertEtcheverry,

2011

CourtesyofPhillyFringe

An ArtisticPresence

That stirring was cemented by theinauguration of First Friday, a programwidely credited with providing much-needed life to a long-unrealizedpromise. Some 20 years later themonthly gallery crawls are a reliableinstitution that fills the streets withbrowsers, buyers, and revelersseduced by the festival atmosphereand free wine. I come here at leastonce a month, and its usually forFirst Friday, says Arielle Wernick, 25,as she and two of her friends settlein for a performance of the Ardensproduction of Next to Normal.

Although she lives closer to the barsof South Street that attract a youngercrowd, Wernick says Old City is moreof a going-out place.

With First Fridays throngs andOld Citys strengthened core of artsofferings have come many morerestaurants, including restaurantsfrom Iron Chef Jose Garces andtheatrical restaurateur Stephen Starr.More lofts have been convertedand more vintage clothing boutiquesand funky home furnishings outletshave appeared.

New businesses like Art in theAge of Mechanical Reproduction,a highly-curated, vaguelySteampunk-ish retailer accentedwith racks of Warby Parker

eyeglasses and shelves of Monoclemagazines, continue to raise theareas hip quotient. Once artwas established as a key driver,says Pf ister, we added densityand diversity to the neighborhood.

A Tech Future?

Ian Cross, who came to Old City in 1992after relocating from his native Britain,recognized the neighborhoodsqualities right away. The architectureand the scale appealed to me, he says.

There were already a few musicvenues and galleries, but the vibe andreputation were more gritty, more raw.There was still plenty of light industry.In 1995 he and a partner establishedan internet marketing agency, I-SITE,moving into a series of Old Citybuildings as the company grew.The districts warehouse stock wastailor-made for such adaptive reuse,he notes. However, he sees a downsideas well as an upside to that. Becausewe didnt have empty lots jus t emptybuildings we didnt benefit fromsome of the imaginative contemporaryarchitecture you see in emergingneighborhoods like Northern Libertiesor Fishtown, he says. I kind ofmiss that.

As a long-time resident andbusiness owner, Cross has beena key booster for the areas shift intoa tech center. Lately hes noticeda critical mass. Whats excitingfor me as I walk the two blocks frommy apartment to my office is to see

all these bikes coming in. Peopleare coming from other areas towork here, he observes. Theresreal mixed use, a population ofworkers and residents and visitors.

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Affordable Housing in The Pearl

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Portland Center Stage, Lobby Pacific Northwest College of the Arts

Food Carts in Pioneer Courthouse Square

Stumptown Coffee

Pearl District

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Taking The Pearlfrom Grit to Polish

Before the renewal effort began, this

was a very different landscape,explains Patty Gardner, a longtimeresident and The Pearl DistrictNeighborhood Associations currentchairwoman of planning andtransportation. The district, a vitalhub during the golden age of railroads,gradually lost steam after theinterstate highway boom of the 1950s.By Gardners childhood it had beenreduced to dirty, empty spans of dyingrailyard. There were train tracks thatwent all the way to Burnside, andevery night trains would deliver grainto the brewery. This was a rawer,more industrial neighborhood then,but there was opportunity if there wasvision, she recalls.

Starting in the early 1980s the regionbecame the subject of several urbanrenewal studies that touted itspotential for residential growth.Various drafts of a River DistrictPlan generated in the early 1990shoned the vision for accommodatingmore people and businesses, butthe pace of progress really picked uparound the turn of the millennium.

In 1999 the already-formidablePowells Books completeda 50,000-square-foot expansion.In 2000 The First Regiment ArmoryAnnex Building, which had previouslyhoused the Weinhardt Brewery, wastransformed into a state-of-the-arttheater space for Portland Center

Stage, and the abandoned Fuller

Paint Company building on N.W.13th Avenue was refurbished intoWieden + Kennedys newheadquarters, a sleek five-storysplit-level with a spacious multi-useauditorium. Despite modernization,both buildings retained enoughof their original features to qualifyfor the National Register of HistoricPlaces, a designation districtplanners have continued toencourage property ownersto pursue wherever possible.

By the mid-2000s the Pearl hadbecome much more attractive bothaesthetically and economically.Established local art galleries tooknote and began moving into theneighborhood. The Elizabeth LeachGallery, a 31-year-old institution witha world-renowned reputation,planted its flag on N.W. 9th Avenuein 2004, and a fleet of prestigiousand established names FroelickGallery, Blue Sky Gallery, the AugenGallery, and the Museum ofContemporary Craft followedin 2007, colonizing the historicallyrenovated DeSoto Building. Thepresence of these new tastemakersraised the neighborhoods profile,and in the newly centralized gallerydistrict First Thursday turned froma monthly whim into a ritual tradition,a draw for tourists and suburbanitesas well as a neighborhood celebration.

On The Scene:Portlands Art Walk

Its a Thursday evening in Octoberin Portland. The weather is mild,and the once-a-month flurry of artwalk activity is afoot. Clusters ofvisitors stroll down N.W. DavisStreet and shuffle through the leafyNorth Park Blocks as gleaminggalleries open their doors to unveil

their latest shows. At Gallery 903a wine steward uncorks a bottlefrom Willamette Valleys ErathWinery and a Spanish classicalguitarist plays softly in a cor ner. ItsSeattle business student RachellaSmiths first taste of First Thursday.

Im not from here; I just heard thiswas the place to be, the stylish20-something explains. Im stillgetting a feel for what Portlandsabout, but this is a great example ofwhat I see Portland as: very greenand expressive.

Farther back in the gallery AlexandraBecker-Black, painter of some elegantnudes that Smith found striking,greets admirers of her work.The 27-year-old admits schleppingher pieces to nearby coffee shopsand street fairs for two years before

earning this coveted spot.

What attracted the Rhode IslandSchool of Design graduate to pursueher dreams in this Portlandneighborhood? It suits my work; itsrefined she says.

Downtown Portland, along with whatis known as The Pearl District, ishome to a growing number of art

galleries as well as Powells Books,established in 1971 and now thelargest independent new and usedbookstore in the world; PortlandCenter Stage; and the prestigiousadvertising agency Wieden + Kennedy.

The Pearl District is bounded tothe south by W. Burnside Street,the citys north-south dividing line;to the east by N.W. Broadway,a well-appointed thoroughfare thatruns north from the Portland ArtMuseum; Highway 405 to the west;and N.W. Lovejoy Street to the north.

The Pearl also represents anotherimportant intersection: wherearchitecture, urban planning,historic preservation and greenbuilding initiatives have convergedto meet the challenges of populationgrowth and a changing business

climate while accommodating anartistic renaissance.

The Iconic Made in Oregon Sign The Hawthorne Bridge Bike Path

Portland Farmers Market

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rtesyofFlickruserpmedved

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Pearl Lifestyle:Its Your Oyster

Downtown residents have a wealthof choices when it comes to art,entertainment and shopping. ThePortland Center Stage Armory hostsa full theater season on two stages:the Gerding, which favors high-production-value plays and musicals,and the Ellyn Bye, which tendstoward more avant-garde, new, orsolo productions. Jimmy Maks jazzclub brings world-class playersseveral nights a week, and galleriesand restaurants host symposia andcharity events throughout the month.

The boutiques in Jamison Squaretend to be shopping hot-spots,as does Powells Books, which alsosells plenty of notions and trinkets.Shoe enthusiasts might want to stepinto the well-heeled Halo or visitLizard Lounge to weigh the meritsof a pair of locally-made Dannerboots against heavy-duty docsfrom the Doc Marten Store.

For lunch, locals recommend LittleBig Burger, Thai Peacock, andPrasad, while dinner is dominated byIrving Street Kitchen, Park Kitchen,and Davis Street Tavern. For coffee,

Barista is said to be hard to beat, andfor bread and pastry the PearlBakery is extolled as close to perfect.

Making Roomfor a Mix of Incomes

Even with the comfortable medianincome, the neighborhood isremarkably mixed in terms of incomelevels. There was a concern whenwe began that it would just be for richpeople, says Steve Rudman, executivedirector at Portlands housing authority,Home Forward. So we found a way

to make the redevelopment viable forall local residents.

The tool that allowed that to happen,according to Rudman, is theinclusionary-funding rule insertedinto the final River District Plan.This rule requires that 30 percentof property tax income from newconstruction be set aside forconstruction of affordable units.These funds have paved the way fora half-dozen affordable-unitbuildings to be built, including theSitka, Lovejoy and RamonaApartments the last whimsicallynamed after the character in BeverlyClearys childrens books.

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Delfina restaurant Taqueria Vallarta

For decades San Franciscos MissionDistrict has been the citys artisticbreeding ground. Even today, whenSilicon Valley has taken over as theBay Areas employment hub and SanFrancisco has become a bedroomcommunity for software developers,the Mission holds its own as a hotbedof the arts. Not far away the historicCivic Center is filled with grandedifices housing the symphony andballet, but except for the hours

before and after a performance thesurrounding streets are quiet. Bycontrast, in the Mission every inchof the fine-grained streetscape is fullof life at all hours, from the cornerbodegas selling mangoes and beerto the high-end restaurants likeRange and Delfina.

If you look at a map of the city andwhats going on creatively, theresa huge concentration of that inthe Mission, says Courtney Fink,executive director of SouthernExposure, an artist-centered non-profit with an exhibition space andoffices on 20th at Alabama. But theytend to be smaller, more community-driven, artist-led groups that dontneed a ton of space. There are reallynot a lot of big spaces so it has alwaysfelt like a really dense neighborhood.

It feels very rich in culture, andtheres still a lot of diversity.

While locals will all point tochanging demographics in theMission, particularly around 16thand Valencia, there is still a vibrantand politically active Hispaniccommunity.

That community is also steepedin the arts, represented by groupslike Teatro Campesino, Galerade la Raza and the Mission CulturalCenter. The neighborhood alsoboasts a genuine arts touristattraction in Balmy Alley, one ofseveral alleyways decorated withcolorful murals painted by muralarts organization Precita Eyes.

Art has been the driving force thathas shifted the environment in theMission from a very violent area to avery vibrant neighborhood, says AniRivera, executive director of Galer ade la Raza. And using art as avehicle for social change has alwaysbeen at the forefront. Rivera saysthat in the 1970s when Galera dela Raza was founded on 24th Streetthe Mission was primarily a migrantimmigrant population and had asignificant gang problem. Latino artsorganizations with an activist bentgave voice to the community andbrought about a dramatic change inthe look and feel of the neighborhood.

And in the last 10 years, theres beena huge shift, adds Rivera. I thinkwhat pulled people to thisneighborhood was the arts.

There are celebrations all the time,[like] Carnaval parades down BalmyAlley, says Ellen Callas, generalmanager and collective member ofthe SF Mime Troupe, a theater groupthat performs much-loved politicalsatire in Bay Area parks . Theresa sense of vitality and youth, andpeople are attracted to the Mission

because of that energy. SF MimeTroupes offices, complete with ascene shop, costume lab andrehearsal spaces, have been locatedin the Mission since the 1970s.

We have a big back yard, and werehearse out there and we inviteartists from the community to useit, says Callas. Its our home.

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The Weird andthe Wonderful

The city has long served as anincubator for unique, funky artistcommunities. In the 1990s whengrunge had taken over most of themusic world, San Francisco wasspawning bands like Idiot Flesh andCharming Hostess creepy, circus-inspired ensembles with exotic

instrumentation and even more exoticcostuming. These bands played todedicated followings in small clubsaround the city, oblivious to trendsin the outside world. In the Mission,The Marsh has become a much-lovedvenue for solo performers andstorytellers, and The Elbo Roomkeeps the mix of jazz and roots musicgoing all week long.

San Franciscos sex-positive residentscelebrate at Club Kiss, a secret clubinitiated and promoted by fetishfashion designer Princess Polly.

Visual artists live and workthroughout the neighborhood incollectives like Art Explosion Studiosand Root Division. Artists KirstenTradowsky and Heidi McDowell sharea studio space in the 1890 BryantBuilding across from the bus station.

When asked why she decided to setup shop in the Mission after artschool, Tradowksy explains, Theweather is really nice, the light isamazing

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