On Feb. 9, 2026 Local 802 President Dan Point delivered the following testimony at the New York City Council Oversight Hearing on Affordability in New York City’s Art and Cultural Sector:

Hello, I am Dan Point, the President of AFM Local 802, the union that represents nearly 6,000 musicians across New York.

I want to start by thanking the Chair of the Committee on Cultural Affairs, Libraries, and International Relations, Council Member Nantasha M. Williams, as well as the rest of the committee for holding this vital hearing.

Whether on a Broadway stage, in a Bushwick studio, in a Bronx dance hall, or on a Queens soundstage, artists, musicians, and performers are integral to NYC’s unique culture and its economic power. As the President of Local 802, I understand and appreciate the powerful and vital economic engine that is our city’s creative sector.  Unfortunately, that economic engine has started to stall.

The COVID-19 pandemic hit the creative industry especially hard. Live performances were among the first activities to be shut down and one of the last to return. As a result, many performers and artists pivoted to entirely new careers. Local 802, for example, saw our membership rolls significantly shrink.

But despite the damage COVID-19 caused, the affordability crisis has kept artists away, even as the city’s overall recovery has progressed. To be frank, we have reached a breaking point for NYC artists. Even though creative economy workers here earn higher nominal wages than their peers elsewhere, after adjusting for the cost of living, they earn about 22.6 percent less than the national average—a gap that has widened from 15 percent a decade ago.

Neighborhoods that have served as “creative hubs” have seen a marked decline in artists: Since 2018, the artist population has fallen 5 percent in Bushwick, 17 percent in Harlem, and 18 percent in Chelsea and Hell’s Kitchen, as median asking rents have jumped more than 30 percent.

As dire as the problem has become, the solution remains relatively simple: the City must support creative arts unions as they build worker power, expand affordable housing, strengthen tenants’ rights, and continue initiatives like Mayor Mamdani’s Executive Order to take on Junk Fees. On affordable housing, the city can and should build 5,000 artist-preference housing units in NYC by 2030. Luckily, City Council Members Powers and Bottcher recently introduced an Artists Housing bill to address the need for more housing, and I urge the city council to pass this bill.

This administration and the City Council have already taken steps to address the affordability crisis gripping our city. It is my hope that work continues so that NYC remains a cultural and artistic beacon for the country and the world. Thank you all.