It is associated with allied service-industry jobs like cafes, printers, fashion outlets, restaurants, and a variety of 'discreet services' (see the back-page small-ads of almost any cultural events-listings magazine).
Rather than town planners deciding that a particular area should have theatres and galleries, these spontaneous artists centres are driven by affordability of space and a concentration of mutual interests.
Cultural districts may be seen by local authorities as a way to revitalize the “brownfields” of the urban core: areas of abandoned buildings that encourage businesses and residents to leave the cities.
Most cultural districts are built to take advantage of other city attractions such as historic features, convention spaces and parks and other natural amenities.
The coordinated agency appointed for the district must work carefully to ensure inclusiveness of concerns and to balance potentially conflicting interests.
A NOCD "supports existing neighborhood cultural assets rather than imposing arts institutions somewhere new," according to Tamara Greenfield, co-director of NOCD-New York.
"[10] Indeed, different conceptions of cultural districts include self-organization and emergence in different degrees (e.g. Lazzeretti, 2003; Le Blanc, 2010; Sacco et al., 2013; Stern & Seifert, 2007).
The use of qualitative analysis and rough estimations or agent-based modelling can represent a fertile ground for both future research, policy-making and managerial implications.