Beyond Bicostal: Seeing the Western PA and the Rust Belt in the 21st Century

I grew up and have lived all my life in Erie, Pennsylvania, a “big small town” on the shores of Lake Erie– notorious for its lake-effect snow and status as a swing county, our election results determining the nation’s since 2008. We are caught between three cities that have greater primacy in the Rust Belt region: to our west- Cleveland and the Greater Midwest, to our south: Pittsburgh and Appalachian coal country, to our east: Buffalo and Western NY. Because of this, Erie feels both caught between worlds and wrapped in one of its own. 

Panoramic map of Erie County, PA. Alfred Ruger, 1870. From the Library of Congress by way of the Erie Reader

I have always had the sense that Erie has a very strong local pride– one I feel that is endemic to Western Pennsylvania and the Rust Belt as a whole. My perspective on architecture and urbanism as well as social, cultural, and labor issues has been deeply shaped by my hometown. In this blog post, I intend to spell out what exactly makes Western PA so special and how it has potential to carry that influence into the rest of the 21st century.

Western PA has been shaped by immigration since its very inception as a cultural region– the rapid influx of immigrants from Eastern and Southern Europe in the early nineteenth century due to growing industrialization forming an interesting Christian syncretism that formed civic life and art in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Eastern and Greek orthodox Christianity remains prevalent in the built environment, as shown by the “onion domes” built by Slavic immigrants in PA coal county. Today, many Rust Belt cities have an incredible level of diversity in religion and places of worship– while Erie’s spiritual landscape has historically been Roman Catholic, Hindu, Islam, Buddhist, and Jewish cultural centers and houses of worship have been seeing growth alongside the established Orthodox Christian presence.

Immigration continues to shape the Rust Belt region to this day: in face of declining population, the feared “brain drain,” and the exodus of traditional industry employers (e.g. General Electric, steel/paper/auto manufacturing companies), immigration is one way cities like Erie have attempted to revitalize their populations, with a large degree of success.

Erie's Flagship City Food Hall

Ask anyone from the Rust Belt region and they likely have memories related to hyper specific regional foods– Erie natives can tell you about the ubiquity of pepperoni balls, lake perch and walleye, and sponge candy but anyone outside the County would raise their eyebrows. Traditional Erie cuisine is heavily influenced by Eastern European (Pierogies, and kielbasa), Mediterranean (Greek Dogs and Baklava), and Italian styles. I’ve enjoyed seeing Erie’s culinary footprint be broadened by immigrants from the Middle East and Latin America. Arabic supermarket Almadina provides imports as well as staples from Middle Eastern cuisine, seeking to solve Downtown Erie’s endemic food desert problem, while independent Dina’s Dominican restaurant has set up in Flagship City Food Hall, bringing Latin flavor onto the culinary scene.

In the 21st century especially, I feel like there’s been a revival of interest in the distinct cultural heritage of the Rust Belt region. Belt Publishing and Rust Belt Magazine (separate entities) both sprung up in the 2010s to publish thoughtful nonfiction recognizing the prolific output from writers, artists, and poets in areas outside the bicoastal tradition– an impassioned defense of flyover country. Recent offerings from Belt Publishing are as wide as a collection of essays and poetry on failure to tips on how to navigate the ubiquitous estate/garage sale to map-based explainers on key cities like Cincinnati and Buffalo. Arts, culture, and creative work are crucial to regional development and success, and I believe that this interest can only foreshadow positive change.

But cultural recognition is only half the battle; a region cannot thrive on stories alone if the physical landscape remains stagnant. In my future work in the planning field, I want to engage with and understand communities in much the same way I have tried to with the Rust Belt region. I am grateful for the insight into American culture growing up in such an interesting and diverse region has given me, and hope to use that knowledge to determine solutions for our shared urbanized future.

I fully believe that we are in for a “Rust Belt Revival” in the next half of the century– the region is full of civic, cultural, and architectural history, and maybe more importantly, potential for growth and revitalization. As the cost of living continues to increase in America’s top cities and workers’ economic means and jobs become more diversified, flattened, and knowledge-based, a middle region needs to be established. Instead of giving into the failed postwar American dream of suburbia: auto-dependent, socially isolated, environmentally unsustainable, and rapidly accelerating bad-quality new development, we could seek to instead revitalize existing cities that have already embraced a diversity of populations, professions, and economic cores. Rust Belt cities can be the dense, mixed-use, collective oriented, and affordable havens all us urbanists want– so what’s stopping us? All that’s required of the next generation is a willingness to see positive change happen in these “big small towns” and see the future instead of just looking to the past.

Notes:

• I've always appreciated local freelance writer/public historian Jonathan Burdick's work (on social media as Rust and Dirt)- I credit reading his thoughtful work throughout high school with forming a richer understanding of my hometown and the Rust Belt in general.

• I spent most of my summer in 2024 following Notre Dame grad student Gavin Moulton's road trip from southeast PA to Milwaukee, WI where he documented civic and religious buildings of the Rust Belt with a Stephen Shore-like anthropological eye. I'd thoroughly recommend taking 30-60 minutes to scroll his X (formerly Twitter) or Instagram to get a glimpse of regional Belt culture.