Gobbling up NYC venues

This was written in November 2005, before CBGB closed, but after a number of other clubs were shuttered.

Is NYC still the nation’s prime rock ‘n’ roll city?: "The problem isn’t a shortage of talent. People with that end up here pretty consistently. It’s got more to do with infrastructure and economics. In the current real-estate bubble, selling or renting housing to the deep-pockets crowd is so much more profitable than hosting the arts (or practically anything else) that landlords all over town have decided to cash in. Those whose tenants are music venues may or may not care that when they extract the maximum commercial value from their own property, they also chip away at the general cultural atmosphere that’s had so much to do with making NYC property valuable in the first place."