Why does the author need to care about “a community’s quality of life” as some kind of abstract ideal, or collect data about it? What “community” are we talking about? If it’s the community of artists and other weird/interesting people, then of course having other similar people around improves the community’s quality of life, since that’s what the community is.
Do artists improve the quality of life of a community of bankers? Who knows, and who cares?