Philadelphia Campaigns To Lure Away New York Artists

With an eye on disgruntled New York artists pinched by rising rents, Philadelphia is using a new advertising campaign in an effort to lure the so-called creative class crowd to help the city rebound.The tactic is a common one for cities seeking revitalization, as 20-something artists tend to spur investment in industrial, dormant, or tawdry neighborhoods. In New York, this has been the story of SoHo, followed by Williamsburg, Greenpoint, and now Astoria and Bushwick, where neighborhood vitality follows the hipsters, as do the higher rents that eventually push them out.The city of brotherly love is seemingly bidding to add its name to that list, showboating its proximity to New York and relatively inexpensive cost of living.The ads take the form of posters and inserts in an alternative weekly newspaper that direct people to uwishunu.com, a Web log run by the city ‘s tourism agency that focuses on nightlife and Philadelphia’s artistic scene.“New York, being the wonderful city that it is, has been successful, and on many levels, folks are being priced out,” a spokeswoman at the Greater Philadelphia Tourism Marketing Corporation, Caroline Bean, said.New York City is a major focus in the $5 million, two-year campaign that also targets other cities such as Boston and Washington, Ms. Bean said.The agency launched its Web site late last year, and the poster and newspaper campaigns are to begin in coming weeks.Philadelphia’s population has dropped substantially over the past half century, to less than 1.5 million from its peak of about 2 million in 1950. A struggling economy and high crime have accompanied the downward slide, though the population loss seems to be slowing.To counter these trends, the city for years has been making revitalization efforts, and recently has launched initiatives aimed at attracting and retaining both college students and young professionals.A key factor in attracting anyone to the city is the relatively low cost of housing, which can be an especially tempting carrot to college graduates looking to live in a place like New York on low wages, officials say.A 22-year-old musician who grew up on the Upper West Side, Mookie Singerman, said his rent, $2,200 split six ways, was a major factor in his moving to Philadelphia in September.“It’s incredibly cheap, and we can afford to do the band full time — we wouldn’t be able to do that in New York,” Mr. Singerman said. “I knew I would be living in a shoebox if I was living in New York.”

Philadelphia Campaigns To Lure Away New York Artists

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