Fortifying An ‘Arts Neighborhood’

“Standing by a South Boston construction site, Mayor Thomas M. Menino yesterday quoted Pablo Picasso, as the Fort Point Cultural Collaborative announced plans for Midway Studios, a 200,000-square-foot development that will house 89 new artists’ live/work studios, a gallery, a black box theater, and other cultural facilities in Boston’s Fort Point neighborhood.” The project is designed to combat the seemingly endless cycle that sees artists move into a run-down urban neighborhood and breathe new life into it, only to be forced out by the rising property values that their good work makes inevitable.