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Buffalo's captured imaginary: Atmosphere, absurdity and the depoliticized imagination of the Rust Belt
Evren Dincer — Apr 10, 2026
Abstract: Using Buffalo, New York, as a key case study, this article examines the cultural grammar through which the American Rust Belt is represented as a site of terminal decline and absurdity.
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Can Buffalo Ever Come Back?
Edward Glaeser — Jan 1, 2007
At the onset of the Great Depression, Buffalo had 573,000 inhabitants, making it the 13th-largest city in America. In the 75 years that followed, this once-mighty metropolis lost 55 percent of its population, a decline most dramatic in its blighted inner city but also apparent in its broader metropolitan area, one of the 20 most quickly deteriorating such regions in the nation. Twenty-seven percent of Buffalo’s residents are poor, more than twice the national average. …