President of Partners for Livable Communities, Robert McNulty, was quoted in The Wall Street Journal article “Artists vs. Blight ,” discussing artist occupations of blighted homes and neighborhoods in transitioning communities such as Cleveland and Detroit. “Artists have become the occupiers of last resort,” said McNulty, referring to the current housing crisis and rising foreclosures. As nationwide foreclosures increased by 81% in 2008 since the previous year, vacant properties in blighted neighborhoods continue to attract the creative class; and, McNulty says “The worse things get the more creative you have to become.” In Detroit and Cleveland, artists purchase housing for as little as $100.00 per unit in order to create artists colonies, including live/workspaces for artists. This migratory trend is not a new one; artists have created bohemian havens in previously blighted areas such as New York’s Williamsburg and Wicker Park, Chicago and ultimately are displaced once their created, place-based creative class spurs gentrification. But now, with the real estate market collapse, economists say that artists have the opportunity to become stake holders in communities that they would not otherwise be able to afford; but how will this era of increased artist occupation, and ultimately a spread of the creative class, change the development patterns of neighborhoods as we know them today?