Co-opting Developers
I was at an interesting 4culture-sponsored "Creative Conversation a couple weeks back where the talk turned to space for art, which, inevitably, turned to developers. Some of the talk was positive, as in "we can really work with these guys and convince them that it's in their interest to preserve arts space in gentrifying neighborhoods." Some, of course, was negative, as in, "these effin' developers just care about..." Well, you know how that ends.
Anyway, the reason I bring this up is that I stumbled across this New York Times article about emerging arts spaces in the rapidly-gentrifying Harlem and the Bronx. In the article, the new director of the Bronx Museum of the Arts notes that they've installed a new board president, Bronx developer Robert J. Perez.
That's a novel idea... bring the developers onto the boards. Give them some skin in the game. I wonder if anyone's done that in Seattle.