Loosing an artist residency space sucks, but let's focus on the real issue here.

888 Dupont. A bright green-blue old warehouse converted into artist live-work spaces. A tale as old as urbanism. But now, sadly, it is coming to an end. 888 Dupont is being demolished and replaced with the dreaded... condos.

Only that's not the whole story.

Firstly, losing an established creative hub for artists sucks. It is a shame to see 888 Dupont go. However, we have to ask, at what point are we just romanticizing a small elite group (established artists able to afford these studios) at the cost of everyone else?

888 Dupont is not being replaced by some condos only for the rich. It is being replaced by an extensive mixed-use development featuring two key assets: affordable units and LIve-work spaces.

Affordable Units: Currently, Dupont units are not accessible to all, and there are few. Arguing in favor of demolishing one set of units just so more people can get housing is a slippery slope, but in this case, a couple of dozen artists vs. 150 affordable units housing families, too, not just artists. It's just math.

Secondly, where will the artists go? Nowhere. They don't have to leave. The units of the new 888 will be live work, which is developer-speak for "zoned so that one can live and work in the same space." This is essentially what an artist lofts it, only more accessible because it allows hairdressers, recording studios, media creators, and more to live and work in the same space.

This is the key takeaway: Demolishing 888 Dupont does not eliminate artists in our urban fabric. It integrates them more so by having families and 'regular' citizens around them.

Development is shady, no doubt, and who to say the artists could even go back into the new development, or the developer won't snake and make fewer units affordable of live work than promised, but the point is raised at what point are we prioritizing the romance of artists so much so we are ignoring the needs of the city?