Getting Creative with Blight

"Some urban planners warn against treating the arts as a cure-all for urban development, particularly since low-income residents are often forced out when artists move in. 'Artists have had the effect of gentrifying neighborhoods that were working for the existing communities,' says Dana Cuff, an architecture professor at UCLA and founder of cityLAB, an urban-design think tank.

Some artists are also wary of being branded as agents of development. 'I could never afford the neighborhoods that I've helped contribute to,' says Bridget Ginley, a 38-year-old painter, who says she was priced out of Cleveland's trendy Tremont and Ohio City neighborhoods once the galleries and restaurants arrived."