Artists

Richard Florida ranks the top ten artistic cities in America. Los Angeles takes the 4th place spot competing competing amongst other cities including New York, Santa Cruz-Watsonville, and Santa Fe.

Artists tend to flock to big cities where their art can be bought and appreciated, but economic hard times are sending artists fleeing towards cheaper rents on homes and studio space.

The recession has left many real estate properties empty across the country. In Los Angeles, some of those empty spaces are being revived by the city's artists.

Public space plays an important role in cities. Essential to creating good public spaces, according to this commentary from The Nation, is the art community.

As other cities follow suit, Boston leads the way in creating artist housing through developer incentive programs and design requirements.

A recent conference focused on how planners use the transformative effect that artists bring to a community to help jump start urban revitalization.