what is the opposite of Soho?

this post is not about Soho (much), though it does involve Soho artists
After playing in the Soho artist-in-residence/real estate sandbox yesterday and again on Saturday, Manhattan Loft Guy takes a break to hit a town in Texas that might just be the opposite of Soho. (Bet you didn’t see that coming.) Of course, real Soho fans recognize Marfa, Texas as the installation site for Donald Judson’s massive and minimal work that began within just a few years of his buying 101 Spring Street.

The parallels between Soho and Marfa (in reverse, and in overlapping time frames) are what got me interested in this post. But please (please, please, please) read through to the end to see what really made my hair stand on end.

a talking head writes, I follow
David Byrne visited Marfa in 2006. No surprise that he keeps a journal, or that it is on-line.  Among other things, the journal offers his take on Marfa and Donald Judd’s work, and Judd’s influence there. Money quote, for my mercantile purposes is about a “bizarre coexistence”:

People from distant parts are moving here. The “Pizza Foundation” restaurant (a pun of the various art foundations in town) is staffed by RISD graduates. Collectors pass through, there are dinners and drinks and late nights. MoMA runs a film program here (they’re thinking of moving to a drive-in to be built on Barry Tubb’s property.) Visiting artists — some invited by the art foundations — stay for a while and create editions and strange new works. The ranchers welcome the influx of cash, but it’s a bizarre coexistence. The real estate prices have rocketed up — especially for the charming and elegantly proportioned old buildings and houses that remain. The prices may be low by Houston or NY standards, but they’re becoming prohibitively high for locals.

Yes, the artists (and those who followed in their wake) are driving out the locals and their small shops (from Salon, August 1, 2005):

Today, on Marfa’s main street, tony art galleries and wine shops are driving away traditional cafes and shops, whose local owners can’t afford the new sky-high rents. Everywhere you go the townsfolk, independent Texans to the core, lament the changes to their community. The term "ChiNazi" is used locally to describe anyone from out of town who arrives with artistic ambitions and a superior attitude. Observes one local cattle rancher, who asked to remain anonymous: "We’re filling up with triple A’s — artists, assholes and attorneys."

That “Chi” curse is a reference to the foundation that Judson over until his death in 1994, the Chinati Foundation. As Salon said in that 2005 article:

articulate docents lead art lovers on a four-hour tour of installations created specifically for the site by world-famous artists such as Claes Oldenburg, Dan Flavin and Ilya Kabakov. The foundation’s prized pieces are 100 milled aluminum cubes and giant concrete rectangles made by Judd. These are dusted regularly by the resident interns, usually MFA candidates from Ivy League universities.

rubber, meet road
I would be curious to see a comparison of two timelines: (1) how long it took Soho to move from a mainly-for-artists-not-for-money enclave in the later 1960s to whenever those artists think The Rich People Took Over, and (2) how long it took Marfa to move from a scrub town of a few thousand people and one eccentric minimalist artist with huge art work in the early 1970s to whenever the natives think The Rich People Took Over. Allowing for the fact that Soho got started first, I wonder how similar the length of the line from Point A to Point B is in each place.

It had been going on for a while in Marfa when Salon captured this conflict in 2005:

Some residents, meanwhile, feel community life has taken a giant step backward. And not just because they feel segregated from the artists. Seeing their town revitalized along the lines of Dwell magazine leaves them cold. "It’s about all the new things going on here — art galleries and things like that," says a rancher whose family has raised cattle in Marfa for generations. "Newcomers would be better off in local people’s eyes if they did more that involved local people. Right now, you see them in the grocery store and eating together. But they’re not putting in businesses or restaurants that most locals will go to. They’ve come to Marfa because of the quaintness, yet they’re trying to change it, to citify it. Like the bookstore. It’s doing very well, and so is the wine bar, but is that something that is natural to the area of Marfa? They’ve redone the Thunderbird Motel, and that’s great, but is it doing much for Presidio County?"

French tourists bother people, everywhere
It’s not just Artists, Assholes and Attorneys who bother the locals. I can relate to the (implied) complaint about the French that follows this complaint about locals being priced out of local housing:

It’s unlikely, though, that many locals could afford to buy a new home in town. "Houses worth $20,000 or $30,000 are selling for $250,000," says Presidio County appraiser Salgado. "Adobes worth $20,000 are going for $200,000." Like thirsty cattle who can smell water miles away, lowing investors are stampeding up Highway 90 eager to buy anything with daubed mud and a screen door. Their frenzy astonishes many locals.

"People call in and ask to get in on the ground floor," observes Marfa real estate agent Linda Jenkins. "I tell them they’re six years too late." Still, the inquiries keep coming. From New York. From Dublin. From Singapore. Even the French, who are making Marfa the new Paris, Texas. "I’ve sold four properties to French clients," says Wright. "Guess they like the art."

Obviously, local landowners benefit if land values increase, but those who rent don’t get that benefit, and even the landowners who have more wealth may have trouble finding the cash to pay higher real estate taxes on limited incomes:

Some longtime residents benefit from an increase in property prices, but they are burdened by them, too. "If (the real estate boom) doesn’t stop, it will be so hard for the average taxpayer who has lived here forever to pay their taxes," says Salgado. "I have to explain to them that because Mr. Smith from Houston bought a house like yours I have to charge the same rate. They ask me, ‘What have I done?’ and I have to tell them, ‘Nothing, it’s just the market.’"

Talk about a clash between Old Marfa and New Marfa! Does that sound like a situation the Soho Alliance would look into, if it were not a few thousand miles away (and otherwise occupied)?

I don’t know if this even qualifies as irony for someone as immersed in the Soho artist-in-residence “issue” (problem? or tempest in a teapot?) as I have been, but that Salon piece focused on a land-use dispute. The Chinati Foundation (successor to Judd, and keeper of all the artwork there) is fighting to prohibit development of the adjoining land because it

"will greatly impact Chinati in its unencumbered vistas of 30 or more miles, its contemplative setting, and its natural wildlife".

As of that Salon piece, the local judge and mayor were … unsympathetic.

the beginning of “Soho”, the beginning of Manhattan Loft Guy
I will leave you with one the sweetest bits of web-meets-Manhattan-Loft-Guy serendipity I could even imagine. In checking around the web for some information about Judd (about whom I know little) I came upon this March 23, 2006 New York Times article that was amazingly familiar to me, given that it is nearly five years old.

That is Donald Judd’s son reminiscing about the Soho of his childhood, with a memorable olfactory reference:

In a bizarre way, Flavin Judd said on Monday, growing up in SoHo, now a historic district with some of the richest real estate and shopping in the city, was like growing up in a small town.

"The smell of cigars," he said, recalling the cigar-making factories in the neighborhood, which was known as SoHo by 1970. "SoHo smelled like a beautiful cigar."

a birthday, anticipated, a higher blogging being acknowledged
I was not going to say anything about this until The Day, but the FIFTH birthday of this blog is coming up on March 19. I mention that now only because that quote about the cigar from the March 23, 2006 NY Times is so obviously worthy of coverage in Manhattan Loft Guy nearly 5 years later. So obviously worthy, in fact, that it was featured in one of my very first blog posts, on the same day the Times article appeared. My March 23, 2006 post was entitled What did SoHo smell like back in the day?

If not pure luck to run into this article again so close to The Birthday, there must be a blogging god working overtime today. Smelly-Soho was my 4th blog post ever, on my 4th day as Manhattan Loft Guy. This one is One Thousand Three Hundred and Seventy-Seven. But don’t wish me a happy birthday yet!

© Sandy Mattingly 2011