The Brief
- Rising rents and living costs in St. Petersburg are forcing local artists and arts leaders to close studios or leave the city.
- Artists warned city leaders about gentrification for years, and now high expenses threaten the creative community’s future.
- The future of the local arts scene has become a key issue ahead of the St. Petersburg mayoral primary on August 18.
ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. – St. Petersburg artists and arts leaders say rapid gentrification and soaring rents are pricing creative workers out of the city they helped build.
St. Petersburg art scene threatened
What we know:
Rising living costs and commercial rents are forcing long-time creative workers to shut down their operations or leave St. Petersburg entirely.
Woodworker Nick Reale had to vacate his studio seven years after the building was sold, noting that a comparable space would cost up to four times as much.
“It’s progress, but unlike a high tide that raises all ships, progress doesn’t do that,” Reale said. “Somebody gets pushed out, moved out, unsettled, and they call it progress.”…