Narratives of Decline: Race, Poverty, and Youth in the Context of Postindustrial Urban Angst∗

Abstract

We use the term narrative in this article in reference to a city's own story; that is, the social, political, and economic stories that are created and maintained, both locally and nationally, about its history and geography. Our goal here is to engage with some problematic aspects of the narrative of decline that key actors and institutions in Buffalo, New York, create for and about the city. To do this we take aim specifically at one of the foundational empirical claims of Buffalo's self-description: The city is shrinking and aging. Although we do not dispute the objective reality of the population numbers per se, we suggest that the narrative of decline that has been spun around Buffalo over the past fifty years is to some extent a racially based perspective. Evidence is also drawn from the cuts sustained locally in a recent county-level budget crisis, which disproportionately placed burdens on poor communities of color. Ultimately, we critique the ways that neoliberalism has saturated cities' collective narratives of past decline and potential redemption, and suggest that these serve to justify increasing burdens on local residents, especially poor youth of color.

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