Photo by Tom Oldham

David Byrne has penned a "New York-has-changed" editorial, posted by Creative Time Reports and The Guardian. In the piece, Byrne explains his belief that New York's 1% has crushed the city's creative energy. He reflects on the 1970s scene that bred his band, Talking Heads, and wonders if creative culture even plays a role in the future of New York. He also toys with the idea of moving.

Byrne comments on the "invigorating energy" of New York's multicultural melting pot, while comparing and contrasting it to European and Asian cities. "If young, emerging talent of all types can't find a foothold in this city, then it will be a city closer to Hong Kong or Abu Dhabi than to the rich fertile place it has historically been," he writes. "Those places might have museums, but they don't have culture. Ugh. If New York goes there–more than it already has–I'm leaving."

Describing changes to New York's creative spirit, Byrne wrote:

The city is a body and a mind – a physical structure as well as a repository of ideas and information. Knowledge and creativity are resources. If the physical (and financial) parts are functional, then the flow of ideas, creativity and information are facilitated. The city is a fountain that never stops: it generates its energy from the human interactions that take place in it. Unfortunately, we're getting to a point where many of New York's citizens have been excluded from this equation for too long. The physical part of our city – the body – has been improved immeasurably. I'm a huge supporter of the bike lanes and the bikeshare program, the new public plazas, the waterfront parks and the functional public transportation system. But the cultural part of the city – the mind – has been usurped by the top 1%.

He elaborated on how corporate culture and the financial crisis contributed to New York's drained artistic energy: