Artist-in-Residence clause

I went to a property auction for a $2 million dollar loft. It has an artist in resident clause and they made the lady who bought it attest to the fact that she is an artist in residence. It seemed ironic because the lady who paid $2 mil looked more like an Upper Eastside lady-who-lunches. Anyone who can afford these artist in residence properties is probably not any type of artist. Who is to say anyone is not an artist? It seems it would be hard to enforce.

The problem is that the Artist-in-Residence clause specifically states that you have to be certified by the NY State Dept of Cultural Affairs and seems like a fairly vigorous process and their definition of "artist" is very limited in scope. I'm a designer, but not an artist by their definition, so I doubt I could get their certification. My concern is that I end up getting the apartment because no on the co-op board cares (none of them are artists as far as I've been told), but that eventually the city/state starts enforcing the clause!

ala737:

There is ALWAYS a chance (although extremely, extremely, marginally slender) that Bloomberg (or another Mayor in office) would enforce the AIR clause. So I can't say it will "never" happen.

But the reality is this. Almost (not every, but 90%+) any older residential cast iron or wood frame building in NoHo, SoHo, or TriBeCa is 'officially' an AIR building. Most of these buildings turned over long, long ago to wealthier tenants, very few of whom could pass the NYC State Department of Cultural Affairs regulations as a working artist - in many cases most ARTISTS couldn't pass muster, as one has to prove that they actually require the space for usage defined as that which could not take place in any other residential venue, as the law was originally enacted to specifically support performance based arts such as dance companies, large music ensembles, etc. Most visual artists would even have a hard time actually fulfilling the requirements as set forth based on a claimed need for studio space! Now, I must add that in buildings still filled by a majority of artist-tenants (most likely older artist-tenants), the boards of these co-op buildings will use the AIR clause as a blunt club to keep out whomever they wish by dangling the AIR requirements in front of the potential new applicant. Somtimes this is done on principal, as the older tenants wish their building to remain filled only by artists that they deem 'worthy.'

If the mayor decided to suddenly enforce the AIR laws, it would affect tens of thousands of high net worth people who have been living in these lofts and building for many years, and in many cases, for decades (and who it should be noted financially support Mayors and their constituencies). Such an enforcement would cause the loss of thousands and thousands of homes and create a political debacle the likes of which NYC has not seen for a very long time.

Trust me on this one - it will never, NEVER happen. I have invested in, and lived in, AIR lofts in SoHo and NoHo as part of my history in the city (I personally would not qualify as an AIR) and I have never been remotely concerned about investing or living in these types of buildings.

It's a total non-starter.