CULTIVATING THE ARTS -20

CITIES BENEFIT FROM USING
THE ARTS AS AN ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT TOOL

RESOURCES

• http://www.placeonline.us

• http://www.dougmoe.com

• http://www.cityofventura.net

• http://mcguffeyartcenter.com

• http://www.willkerner.com

• http://www.artspace.org

• http://www.broward.org/arts

• http://www.ermetro.com

• http://www.ogdencity.com

• http://www.historic25.com

• http://www.downtownartwalk.org

• http://lacowboy.blogspot.com

• http://www.downtownla.com

Wright frequently writes about Smart Growth and sustainable communities. He recently participated in the prestigious Forum on Land and the Built Environment: The Reinvented City sponsored by the Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard University Lincoln Institute of Land Policy Harvard University Graduate School of Design. Contact him at: stevewright64@yahoo.com

CULTIVATING THE ARTS -19

CITIES BENEFIT FROM USING
THE ARTS AS AN ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT TOOL

The area still has plenty of rescue missions and social service agencies, but they share the former mean streets with chic restaurants, hip bars and galleries that make up one of the most popular monthly art walks in the nation.

"Believing in the power of the arts to transform, I helped found Downtown LA's Gallery Row, Art Walk, Neighborhood Council and Downtown Fashion Week," Westwater said, noting that a half dozen new loft residential spaces have also opened in the once abandoned and lawless historic core. "I also did most of the leasing of the art galleries and then the fashion stores in the area, pro bono. The arts community took the worst part of the Downtown Heroin District and turned it into the creative heart of Downtown. "

Wright frequently writes about Smart Growth and sustainable communities. He recently participated in the prestigious Forum on Land and the Built Environment: The Reinvented City sponsored by the Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard University Lincoln Institute of Land Policy Harvard University Graduate School of Design. Contact him at: stevewright64@yahoo.com

CULTIVATING THE ARTS -18

CITIES BENEFIT FROM USING
THE ARTS AS AN ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT TOOL

Westwater, a 60-something urban cowboy and darling of the LA media, and a few other arts-minded entrepreneurs all landed within a few blocks on 5th and Main when the area was at its most drug-deluged and decrepit.

Westwater and others went about convincing landlords that they would get a large return on their long-term investment if they started cleaning up the area by offering studio, gallery and living space to artists for very low rent.

"The renowned Bert Green Fine Art gallery moved from West Hollywood to Downtown and soon there were five popular art galleries in the area of 5th and Main," Westwater said. "We kept clearing the drug dealers out and then we tackled Winston, a small street near 5th and Main so dangerous that people wouldn't cross a half block of it in the daylight."

CULTIVATING THE ARTS -17

In the 1990s, a chunk of Downtown Los Angeles was dominated by drug dealers and gangs. Artists, art galleries and like-minded urban pioneers helped fill vacant buildings and vacant lots while taming the mean streets of LA's Main Street.

Tom Waits wrote a song about The Nickel, an oddball ode to the hustlers, pimps, lost souls and worse who inhabited 5th Street. No corner was worse that 5th and Main -- before the arts changed everything.

"In the late '90s, more drugs were sold on that corner -- 5th and Main -- than anywhere in the world," said Brady Westwater, a character as big and over the top as the star struck and quake-prone City of Angels, who calls himself the unhired, unpaid "curator" of Downtown Los Angeles. "On the longer blocks, 80 to 90 drug dealers were out leaning against a building or standing on the sidewalk waiting for cars to drive up to buy drugs 24 hours a day. They had tents there that they rented to people crawl in and do their drugs."