BY CLAYTON PATTERSON | I have been impressed by the number of passionate and intelligent responses I have been getting from the Taylor Swift column in the comment section, as well as in e-mails and phone calls. Responses from around the globe. No question, many people are offended by the fact that New York City cannot find a New York City talent to represent New York City.
What surprised me the most was learning how much young, creative talent has left the city. Yes, we know about the mass exodus from Manhattan to Brooklyn. And yes, the adventurous ones are heading to places like Detroit and Cleveland. Many have been lured to cheaper rent and paying opportunities in L.A. But others have headed for Prague, Barcelona, Berlin, parts of Italy. It seems London has become too expensive as the same type of gentrification is happening there.
Have our political leaders forgotten the fact that most of the creative genius that came out of N.Y.C. was connected to cheap rent and the chance to live an inexpensive lifestyle? And it was out of Downtown Manhattan that so many of our great cultural leaders came.
What do our fearless politicians say about this brain drain and the fact that N.Y.C. has chosen Taylor Swift as our cultural ambassador because we cannot find a N.Y.C. talent to represent N.Y.C.? We want to hear from Silver, Mendez, Chin, Squadron, Glick, Velazquez, Maloney, Nadler, Hoylman, Kavanagh, Johnson, Brewer, Gottfried.
Our politicians love to give speeches. So here is an opportunity for them to let us know what they think. Or are they really as corrupt and bought-off as our local Columbia-trained medical doctor Dr. Ores says? Dr. Dave’s prescription: “Let’s stop calling them ‘politicians’.”
Politicians are employees of large corporations and super-wealthy donors…American and foreign. Sadly, many people agree with this observation. But let’s be fair and give them an opportunity to respond to the question of why Taylor Swift? And why cannot N.Y.C. find a N.Y.C. talent?
People are angry about how so many local businesses have been forced to close, and how people are losing their homes; about the rent being “too damn high,” the oversaturation of bars, and the loss of community services; the loss of community, the proliferation of corporate cookie-cutter businesses, the exporting of jobs, the loss of creative opportunities.
But this importing of talent in a city that used to be thought the cultural center of the world is way too much. We have to import talent? Yes, let’s hear from our politicians — or are they too deep into the pockets of Wall St. and the multinational corporations?
