Uncategorized

Artists’ fight to find affordability in New York

By Chijoke Onyeagucha

Moving to New York City in November 2025, Donovan Banmalley had no job lined up and no place to stay. Six months later, Banmalley’s work hangs in the oldest art club in New York City.

Many artists like Banmalley dream of moving to the city to focus on their craft, regardless of the obstacles they may face. Once considered a Mecca of the arts, New York City lost its gravitas towards creatives. A 2025 report from the Citizens Budget Commission revealed a population loss of 12,000 NYC residents — high cost of living and concerns related to public safety are cited in the study. 

New York’s Gen-Z residents are feeling the weight of the affordability crisis — opening the floodgates for an exodus of young artists away from the city. Evernest, a property management company, published research data that ranked the state of New York 49th in the U.S. for homeownership rates among people under the age of 35.

In a time period when many artists feel they are being phased out of the city, Banmalley embraces the grind. 

“I think limitations are kind of what make artists really, really thrive,” he says. 

Migrating from Colorado Springs, Banmalley said the move to New York forced him to build his artistry even though he’s struggled to find a stable job.

Taking a leap of faith, Banmalley chose to start small in NYC and grow along the way. As an independent artist, he has had to deal with the costs of financing his work on his own. 

“Everything has been sort of down-scaled,” he said  “I’m thinking about it more in ways of ‘what can I do at my kitchen table?’”

Other creatives like Benjamin Cruz, a filmmaker from Santa Ana, California, connected with New York from a young age inspired by the city’s atmosphere

After watching “The Dark Knight Rises,” Cruz recalls leaving the theater late at night to the flashing lights of Times Square, feeling he had entered a scene directly from the movie. Cruz said he’s outgrown superhero pictures now, but he remembers the “psychedelic experience” as a catalyst for his love of the city, lighting his ambitious fire.

“I really trained myself to just kind of keep wanting more,” he said.

Coming out of high school, Cruz initially moved to New York to study computer science at New York University, the only college he applied to. Passionate about film, Cruz assumed the city would give him the opportunity to launch his career as a filmmaker because of his adjacent position to the NYU Tisch School of the Arts. 

NYU couldn’t provide Cruz the experience he wanted. “I didn’t move to New York to sit in my room for 12 hours and look at a computer screen,” Cruz says.

He eventually dropped out of school to pursue filmmaking full time. Cruz said leaving NYU felt like  “jumping off a cliff.” 

“I love taking risks. I do. I like really love it,” says Cruz. “That’s part of the reason why I’m so attracted to this work, is because there’s so much uncertainty.”

Cruz shares an emotional attachment to New York found in artists worldwide. 

Tolu Olasoji was already used to big city climates. Even as an established journalist from Lagos, Nigeria, Olasoji’s appetite for opportunity was drawn to New York after he “had a taste for the city,” working a remote job.

Olasoji had to transition from working primarily as a journalist to an artist and project manager, but the natural makeup of the city thrust him into the right spaces to make that happen.

“New York is a melting pot of culture,” says Olasoji. “You never know who you’re standing next to, even in the club.”

Adapting to the city and the arts at the same time, Olasoji constantly looks for ways to keep his voice distinct in a crowded market. Switching between photography, documentaries and other mediums, Olasoji ensures he is intentional during his creative process. 

“I’m able to shift gears just by thinking about the intended audience,” he said.

Artists like Banmalley, Cruz and Olasoji continue to roll with the punches in New York, despite the barriers barring young perspectives from the mainstream art scene in the city. Following their passion for the arts, they continue to thrive as they realize their dreams in the city that never sleeps. 

“If you can make it here, you can make it anywhere,”  OIasoji says, paraphrasing the famous lyric from Frank Sinatra’s “Theme from New York, New York.”

No matter the struggle to survive in the area, New York continues to draw the tastemakers and risk takers in the arts to create.