Creatives Flee Much Of Manhattan As Rents Rise, Report Shows

MANHATTAN, NY — Creative workers have fled most Manhattan neighborhoods in recent years, according to a new report detailing the, er, shocking news.

Artistically inclined New Yorkers have fled all of downtown Manhattan and Midtown and the Upper West Side in droves between 2008 and 2017, according to the report City Comptroller Scott Stringer's recently released.

In other words: water is wet. But Stringer's report details just how many thousands of people working in the creative industry have moved out.

The Upper West Side saw more than 6,700 creative professionals move out. In Chinatown and the Lower East Side, nearly 3,900 creatives left.

Thousands more moved out of Battery Park City, Greenwich Village, Chelsea, Hell's Kitchen, Gramercy and Murray Hill.

"Finding affordable places to live and work for creative sector workers has become an ever-steeper challenge — leading to profound migrations across the five boroughs in recent years," the report reads.

Analysts blamed challenges finding affordable housing, unstable employment and student debt making it all the more difficult for creative professionals to thrive in the industry, which employees 293,000 people citywide and pays $30 billion in wages. The sector includes workers in film and television, advertising, publishing, artists, design, museums, fashion, architecture, performing arts, among other jobs.

Manhattan saw its share of creative workers in the borough's population drop from more than half to 40 percent between 2008 and 2017, the report says.

Bushwick saw the biggest spike in professionals moving in, with upwards of 6,000 creatives moving to the Brooklyn nabe. Creatives also flocked to Bed-Stuy, Washington Heights and Inwood, Greenpoint and Williamsburg, Central Harlem, Brooklyn Heights and Fort Greene.

Stringer said the analysis shows the city's artists make a crucial economic contribution to New York and encouraged the city to invest in supporting and creating cultural institutions across the five boroughs.

"This report provides a thoughtful and comprehensive roadmap for the City to fully realize the potential of the creative economy," Stringer stated. "New York City is the creative capital of the world, and this report shows how the sector at the heart and soul of our city is also a pillar of our economy."

Read the full report here.

Patch reporter Kathleen Culliton contributed.