Music & City Planning Don't Mix Easily

Most public planners are looking for ways to create additional monetary value in their cities. That doesn't comport with fostering a sustainable, cutting-edge art scene.

Perennially, the figures of music and city governance intersect because urban planners remember, at some point, that their community’s music scene is a part of the ecosystem. However, there’s something fundamentally off in the way planners discuss music. A few months back, I wrote an essay thinking about what planners can do to foster a decent music scene. The answers are sort of simple: support affordable housing, design safe transportation networks, and otherwise cut down on regulations that make the production and performance of music difficult or needlessly expensive. The music industry itself is growing more and more extractive as streaming services continue to capture an abundance of revenue without any better payouts for the artists whose music they feature. The last thing that the stewards of America’s dozens and dozens of music scenes are planners pushing for policies that exacerbate local housing affordability crises or ramp up crackdowns on informal venues. 

When planners think about music scenes, what they tend to think about is the economic value they offer to their cities. Music festivals are more about tourist dollars than about the artists being showcased. Nuisance reforms are more about supporting for-profit venues than ensuring easy access to practice/performance space. I got rancid vibes reading the APA Planning Advisory Service’s Quicknotes earlier this month as an expert in the city planning field elaborated on “Music Policy and Planning.” 

In the brief for practitioners, the author emphasizes the economic value that a healthy music scene creates by getting people into bars, identifying a city with cultural capital, and attracting visitors looking to get a glimpse at the scene. Examples from Huntsville, New Orleans, Des Moines, Fort Worth, Madison, and more prove that economic developers are interested in music: they’re interested in restoring historic venues, they’re interested in achieving gender and racial parity in community festival talent, and they’re interested in hosting music & tech conferences. 

These are worthwhile initiatives, undoubtedly. But they miss what musicians and fans know is hurting the music scene: the city is not an affordable place to live. For musicians who populate the annals of music blogs big and small, skyrocketing housing costs, gentrification, and the ballooning of police budgets are bigger threats to music scenes than anything else. These are spaces where planners have failed bigtime. While many urban planners get into the profession with an interest in promoting housing affordability, for example, the reality of the planning profession is that everyone in the city wants to see luxury developments go up so that they can provide tax revenue…that is, after the abatements they use to lure in such developments expire. They help city police departments assess the feasibility of felling a forest to build a training center. They chase employers who promise a large quantity of jobs with little question as to the quality or sustainability of those jobs. 

In the pursuit of tax revenue and political brownie points, planners often lose sight of what makes a city successful. When planners see a problem emerge, they examine their community’s zoning codes and economic development strategies to try and fix the problem directly with city resources. But, arguably, hiring a diverse lineup for family-friendly community fairs doesn’t lead to the sustainability of a local music scene (and what is considered family-friendly often comes at the expense of queer musicians and musicians of color, anyway). Planners’ best tactics for supporting music scenes are, arguably, to massage the zoning code and advocate for policies that ensure that musicians have safe, accessible spaces and affordable homes. If the city would like to hire musicians for their local events or play host to a music festival, excellent. There are meaningful material and fringe benefits that come from these investments. But these aren’t going to “solve” local music. We already know that the industry is broken and our cities are broken. Fix the cities and, hopefully, art can Happen.

Festival Report: Making Time

It Got Wet

At the last minute, I opted to buy a weekend pass to Making Time, a festival highlighting the best in electronic and experimental, with everyone from new age royalty to the best next DJs. The festival is in Philly at Fort Mifflin, a historic site on the Delaware River near the Schuylkill’s mouth. It’s flanked by the airport, wastewater treatment plant, and other industry. But that weekend, none of it mattered: it was time to execute our transcendental plan. BTW – everything at Making Time is called “transcendental.” Go over there to get your transcendental merch. Around the corner is the transcendental water bottle refill station. I think everyone’s in on the joke. I still laugh at it.

Unfortunately, the remnants of Tropical Storm Ophelia (not to be confused with Hurricane Ophelia, which hit Ireland of all places in 2017) came for Philly. Fort Mifflin is on filled marshland. It’s at a super low elevation, no more than 40 feet above sea level, with many parts dipping to fewer than 10 feet high. Throughout Fort Mifflin, the earth has been shuffled around to contain the wetlands, but when the rain comes, water can’t easily infiltrate the wet ground. It didn’t take long for the festival to get muddy, and by Saturday, performance spaces in the fort’s interior were flooded. 

None of that stopped people from enjoying sets from rising solo artists like Romy, fresh off the release of her debut non-xx album Mid Air, and house legend Maurice Fulton. Elsewhere, ambient favorites like Rachika Nayar, Julianna Barwick, Mary Lattimore, and Laraaji dazzled crowds. I saw Kate NV in a dark stone room. But wherever there were people, the ground softened, and by Sunday, most of the festival grounds were roped off. I saw some intrepid festivalgoers dancing specifically in the mud, trying to get dirty. I still had a great time. I intend to go back and pray for clearer skies. Shoutout to Ted, Skye, Laura, Austin, Dylan, Nat, Mac, and other friends I encountered this weekend!

Praying that a joint Mary Lattimore & Julianna Barwick set means a joint album in the future.

What am I listening to?

Guitar music from Florida:

Experimental punk n B from Cleveland:

And, of course, Grouper.