One commonly heard cliche among boosters of Buffalo, New York is that the city, the surrounding region, and its people and culture, are somehow more “real”,“authentic”, “genuine”, “honest”, “character filled” and so on, and that the world outside of Western New York is “fake”, “plastic”, “corporate”, “sanitized”, “Anywhere USA” and so on.
Just a few examples I could find in quick search:
In recent weeks, there has been a barrage a lot of promotional commercials for Detroit airing on Cleveland television stations.
The commercials:
http://www.michigan.org/travel/partners/DetroitFamilyFun/Detroit.Family.Fun.asp?link=travnav
Looks like they got their copy verbatim from the comments of boosters in Buffalo’s newspapers and blogs, and substituted “Detroit” and “Michigan” where appropriate.
Given the Detroit campaign, I’m increasingly under the impression that describing a city as “real” or “authentic” is the rough equivalent of calling a retarded person “special.”
I believe that some Buffalonians throw around the “real” tag like some larger women call themselves “real women”, in a way that implies that thin women aren’t “real”. When Buffalonians claim that their city is more “real”, could it be a way of applying a positive word to what might be seen as negative traits: urban grit (not “sanitized” like an evil mall), working-class attitudes and lifestyles (as opposed to “pretentious” but affluent yuppiedom), and a sense of being in a “time warp” (nostalgia for the simpler days of past, as opposed to more complicated 21st century living). Just like “real women”, claims of Buffalo’s “realness” might be a way of implying that more prosperous, affluent cities aren’t “real”; it’s a last-ditch weapon to validate one’s loyalty to Buffalo when people sing the praises of cities like Denver or Portland, and the qualities and amenities of those cities that are lacking in Buffalo. “Sure, Portland might have urban growth boundaries, great public transit, a growing population of young educated professionals, and a thriving downtown, but Buffalo’s more REAL.”
Are there other cities whose residents seem prone to promoting the attributes of the place as “authentic”, “genuine”, “real” and so on, much in a way a hipster hypes their favorite unsigned band? Are the cities that claim to be more “real” generally less prosperous than the norm? Do you think these terms are really code for “we don’t really have anything else going for us, so let’s put a positive spin on our gritty side?”