The Taos-ification of Marfa

[PDittie]

It's high noon in West Texas:

A classic Western showdown has come to the hottest little town in the country. Set amid the cedar-shaded, yucca-dotted lands of West Texas, surrounded by grasslands as wide as the Serengeti, Marfa may be the last un-Starbucked place in America. In the past few years, a covey of A-list artists, corporate players and real estate speculators have descended on the tiny town (pop. 2,121). Enchanted by its spare beauty -- think "The Last Picture Show" with a Christian Liagre makeover -- they're also drawn by elite cultural institutions like the Chinati Foundation, dedicated to hip installation art, and the Lannan Foundation, a prestigious literary organization.

Trailing in the trendsetters' wake has been the national media. Marfa's press clips glow like newly lit luminaria. Publications such as Vanity Fair, Elle and ArtForum venerate Marfa's Victorian ranch houses and Texas Territorial adobes, the burgeoning art scene and its rich patrons. The movie "Giant" was filmed in Marfa 50 years ago, when its stars James Dean, Elizabeth Taylor and Rock Hudson could be seen kicking around town. These days, the scene makers include Dan Rather, Frances McDormand, Dwight Yoakam and Tommy Lee Jones. A National Public Radio station is coming. The real estate madness already has. Four years ago, Marfa adobes were selling for $40,000. They're now $200,000 and no doubt a good deal higher after the recent New York Times story, "The Great Marfa Land Boom."

It's a familiar pattern. Western havens like Aspen, Colo., Taos, N.M., and Missoula, Mont., were Marfas once, playgrounds for coast-hugging hipsters who could slip into jeans and the rustic camaraderie of the outback. But those towns are full up now, victims of their popularity. Now the sagebrush Medici come to Texas, piloting the corporate Gulfstream into tiny Marfa Municipal airport and bellying up to the jes-folks atmosphere of Joe's Bar, where the Bud Light costs $1.75. The town remains an aesthete's dream, devoid of Olive Gardens, Best Buys and any sign of the suburban middle class. Rather, Marfa is the honest texture of adobe and fine art set against a big sky. It's the simplicity of line and the haunting emptiness of the land.

*snip*

Today, on Marfa's main street, tony art galleries and wine shops are driving away traditional cafes and shops, whose local owners can't afford the new sky-high rents. Everywhere you go the townsfolk, independent Texans to the core, lament the changes to their community. The term "ChiNazi" is used locally to describe anyone from out of town who arrives with artistic ambitions and a superior attitude. Observes one local cattle rancher, who asked to remain anonymous: "We're filling up with triple A's -- artists, assholes and attorneys."

Rest at the link above.

[sui generis]

1. good lord why

there ain't nothin' thar but sagebrush and rattlesnakes!

[jobycom]

2. Gotta be the lights.

[Why Syzygy]

6. Interesting ...

While I wouldn't call that locale "far west Texas" (lived in El Paso and that's west dude) .. never heard about those lights.

Wunder what it is. ~ ~ http://www.marfacc.com/ . . . Sounds way cool.

[PDittie]

3. Do you know why they call West Texas 'God's Country'?

Because no one else wanted to live there (until now, apparently).

Maybe the Californians will be changing their voter registration and help us turn the state back blue...

[jburton]

4. Reminds me of the golf course in Lajitas/Terlingua

Middle of frickin' miles of empty desert - a green golf course.

[alarimer]

5. When I saw "factory"

I assumed it was some kind of ugly, polluting monstrosity but they make FEATHER BOAS which cracks me somehow but I guess someone has to do it.
Now I hate Wal-Mart but it would serve those effete snobs (and outsiders I might add) right to have a gigantic one right in the middle of the damn town. I hate that rich assholes from somewhere else come and ruin good places with their upscale boutiques and so forth and price the locals right out of the market. It has happened literally everywhere; it is happening where I live too. Pretty soon only tourists and rich people (with their vacation homes they visit once or twice a year) will be able to afford to even visit North Padre Island. They already have a good start on S. Padre.

I think reasonable, controlled development would be okay in Marfa (after all the little people need affordable housing too-m so they can serve the rich assholes their dinners).