Support the arts 'cause they get it started.
It's a tricky thing though. Having lived in Austin from 1989 to 1997 I saw a lot of change. Its basically an old hippie university town and by the time I left, there were a lot of artists forced to move out as the rents and cost of living skyrocketed, and booming building, poor traffic planning and sprawl. A great many artist and musicians that were there five years ago, renting out those old downtown warehouses, and starting up that co-op store have been forced to move further out of town- like Buda and Smithville, (but they'll commute to the Contential Club!)
Minneapolis gutted a major part of downtown in the 70s under the notion of urban renewal- the scars still remain. Meanwhile, artists started to take over unused warehouses(just west of the razed area) for studios,that begat coffee shops, thrift stores and cheap living space. But now those same warehouses are a hot commodity- and are being renovated into high dollar condos and working artists and musicians have had to migrate, to the North East where they've begun to kick start that old neighborhood. There has been some fantastic creative reuse of buildings- not retail, but innovative workspaces like "Open Book" which houses a publisher, book arts studio, poetry and literary center that offers classes, cafe, and bookstore as tennants.
It would be interesting to take an index of public and private support dollars for the arts and see how that plays in the mix. There is an interesting rural case in Minnesota, a little town named New York Mills, that was aging and on the slide, has invested in the arts with the help of state grants and private support, to enliven and preserve their town. Visiting artists apply to go live out in the sticks and in return, the local get a breath of diversity. They also began to host the Great American Think-off. check it out at
http://www.kulcher.org