Rich New Yorkers love art — but hate artists
Summary
A stranger on the subway running for city council district 2 has a sharp observation: rich New Yorkers will drop millions on a Basquiat but won't care when the artist gets evicted from their rent-stabilized apartment. The city's getting too expensive for artists. Even Bushwick is out of reach now. Kareem and the aspiring councilmember get into the weeds on solutions, bouncing around ideas about tax breaks for landlords who rent to artists below market rate and whether wealthy collectors should get write-offs for funding indie films and music careers instead of just flipping paintings like real estate. It's a conversation about patronage, policy, and why New York treats art as an asset class rather than supporting the people who actually make it.
Full Transcript
So, what's your take? Rich New Yorkers love art, but hate artists. 100% agree. Think about it. True. They'll drop millions on a basket, but they won't bat an eye when the next one gets evicted from the rent stabilized apartment. That's true. Our city is getting so expensive. It's pushing out artists. And well, they got to live in godforsaken Bushwick.
Actually, Bushwick's too expensive. Do you represent Bushwick? So, I'm running to represent council district 2.
Where's that? It's in lower Manhattan and East Manhattan. My office is there. I'm an artist.
Well, I hope we can keep you there. Why do you think they like to collect the art but not the artists? People are just not thinking about arts and culture in a way that is interconnected. You know what I think the big problem is? Most rich people look at art as pretty much one medium, paintings, because those have a tangible value and it's a tangible asset. It's like real estate. They flip it. They want to flip the painting.
Yeah. How do we get rich people to invest in talent beyond painters, comedians, indie filmmakers, indie musicians? Because then you can break the shackles of needing a label or needing corporate sponsors. How do we bring back patrons of the arts? That's what I want. Well, many people don't know this, but New York City is the largest municipal funer of the arts in the entire Not enough money. No, I want I want I don't care about New York City. I want a rich guy. We got to tax them. I got to This is the wrong I'm out. Rich guys should get a tax break when he puts $20 million into my movie.
Now, that's an idea I'm willing to vote for. Okay, I could get that. Why are we not talking about that? Make the city better for artists by making rich people have tax breaks when they invest in art. I'm a I'm a proponent of giving tax breaks to landlords who rent to artists. That's a good that I like that.
Below market rates. I like that.
So, can we do the tax breaks for the rich people that invest in my career? So, let's say I'm making a movie and I need a million dollars and some guy gives a million dollars. That should be a write-off for him in my opinion. I like your idea. Do you want to join my cabinet?
Sure.