Last month Businessweek.com, the Web site of the weekly business magazine, published a list of the ten best cities in the United States for artists, including creative writers. Los Angeles topped the list, followed by Santa Fe, New Mexico; Carson City, Nevada; New York City; Kingston, New York; Oxnard, Thousand Oaks, and Ventura, California; Nashville; Boulder, Colorado; San Francisco; and Nassau and Suffolk Counties in New York.
The list was compiled by Sperling's Best Places, a data analysis company in Portland, Oregon, and is based on factors such as concentration of artistic business establishments; percentage of residents between the ages of twenty-five and thirty-four; cost of living; population diversity, and the number of artistic resources, including museums, theaters, libraries, and college arts programs, each city offers.
L.A. took top honors because, according to Sperling's Best Places, it offers fifty-six arts establishments per hundred thousand people, fifteen percent of its population is between the ages of twenty-five and thirty-four, and it offers a high number of resources for artists and creative writers. "While the city provides great opportunities for actors and directors, there are equally rich prospects for musicians, artists, writers, and dancers," writes Businessweek.com's Maya Roney. "Of course, the majority of these people can't afford to live in Beverly Hills—at least not until they get their big break—and instead opt for more affordable digs in areas like Echo Park."
