New York City is not the same as it ever was, writes David Byrne

The man famous for singing about a city to live in has proclaimed the Big Apple in danger of becoming a culture-compromised financial hub due to the deference it has shown Wall Street.

Musician and Talking Heads front man David Byrne, writing in Creative Time Reports and The Guardian, said that New York now looks "a lot like the divided city that presumptive mayor Bill de Blasio has been harping about: most of Manhattan and many parts of Brooklyn are virtual walled communities, pleasure domes for the rich (which, full disclosure, includes me) and aside from those of us who managed years ago to find our niche and some means of income, there is no room for fresh creative types."

Byrne, 61, an avid cyclist and Chelsea resident, commended the new bike lanes and the city's drop in crime but wondered "why can't one have both -- the invigorating energy and the civic, intelligent humanism?"

He placed the blame for the culture drain on the rise of Wall Street, which Byrne said fails to contribute much to the larger culture, vacuums up young talent that might otherwise be employed in creating things, and whose principals fail to pay their share of taxes. "A culture of arrogance, hubris and winner-take-all was established," and "the bully was celebrated and cheered," wrote Byrne.