Column by Dan Swartz

This column was in the Journal Gazette a few days ago, written by Dan Swartz, an artist who just moved back to Fort Wayne from NYC, and I found it on FWOB (see links to the right). If you came here from FWOB, then you have probably already seen this but I wanted to pull a different excerpt than Mitch did.

There is an obvious difference between Fort Wayne and New York City, and the former will most likely never have the same cultural force as the latter. But Fort Wayne has many things that are impossible to find in New York as well, for instance, starry nights, clean streets, ridiculously low rents, the idea of “just chilling” with friends, cheap food and beer, and real nature. I couldn’t help notice that as so many people told me that I was crazy to move back, there was also a sign of longing in their faces for the things that I described to them and the confidence that I had in knowing that this is the city that I desired, minus the billionaires, skyscrapers, museums, celebrities and, in general, sublimity that sway so many.

You should definitely read the whole article here, Thriving Art Community Can Spur City Progress