Can Artists Help Shape American Cities Again?

Artists helped turn rough neighborhoods into cultural destinations, only to be pushed out as property values climbed. The small Russell Street house where Jack Kerouac worked is now worth more than $1.7 million; Janis Joplin’s Haight-Ashbury apartment would rent for roughly 20 times its late-1960s price; and Dorothea Lange’s studio near Union Square sold for nearly $2.7 million in 2017.

As tech-driven demand reshaped San Francisco, the creative communities that made these areas lively found themselves priced out. Nonprofit leaders in the Bay Area are testing another approach: artists are donating long-held homes to community land trusts so the properties stay affordable for future creators.

A 79-year-old Oakland artist, for example, left a bungalow she bought in 1978 for $22,700 to Artist Space Trust; the home, now worth more than $1 million, will be held in a split title so the trust can sell the house below market and keep the land in the trust.

United States, San Francisco Bay Area

artists, land trusts, san francisco, bay area, gentrification, affordable housing, nonprofits, jack kerouac, janis joplin, dorothea lange