The recent vote that included a sales tax increase to fund arts was denied. There was a passionate debate about it. That it even made it to a popular vote in itself is interesting. Many big but not huge American cities encourage creative people to move to them. I don't know about the transformation of a bank town into an arts destination is all that accurate. Still, creative people at least have an opportunity to make a living here that would be somewhat easier compared with the larger cities on the Right Coast.