The purpose of this article is to describe and analyze recent developments in urban cultural policy in Finland. Different rationales for local cultural policy, and how they intertwine in the contemporary situation, form the general framework for the analysis. Empirically, the article focuses on around 20 Finnish cities which are examined by using, on the one hand, cultural policy documents such as city strategies and cultural strategies, and, on the other hand, data on cultural spending in these cities in 2007 and 2010. The strategies witness about a keen interest in the arts, culture, and creativity; the cultural sector is almost unanimously seen as a major component in urban development. In the more concrete reality, however, the situation looks more modest. Despite of a number of local investments, arts and culture have, generally speaking, hardly grown in economic terms, and the traditional institutions still receive by far the most funding. The comparison of figures from 2007 and 2010 also allows us to look more closely on recent local cultural policy development. The data gives grounds for an assumption that there is a trend towards regional centralization.