Cherished compatriots, Blasted American vistas, follicle implants, and an invitation to share vibrancy soda with The Baffler . . . Will you, won't you join the danse macabre? Yes? Okay then. Line up for a reel in Buffalo, New York, where a binge-purge cycle of car-centric sprawl has left devastation in its wake—"blocks of abandoned factory buildings, acres of urban prairie, the exhausted mien of the urban poor." As Gov. Cuomo works to bring semiconductor plants to the Thruway corridor, there's only more sprawl on the way, says Baffler contributing editor Catherine Tumber. But have hope: Buffalo's new zoning ordinance, the Green Code, marks a return to New Urbanist place-making. Read on here. Catherine will be at the Baffler Happy Hour in Cambridge, Massachusetts, just three days from now. Join us on Monday, April 27, for drinks and drowned-tear cupcakes. Charles Pierce, political commentator for Esquire, will be there too, along with Baffler editors John Summers, Eugenia Williamson, and George Scialabba. Be sure to RSVP. If you're wondering what to wear on your head for the occasion, Manohar Shetty has no help to offer. But he does have a new poem in Baffler no. 27, in which the future is offset, one hair at a time. Remember: "seeing is believing / external is eternal." Looking forward to Monday! Until then, yours, The Baffler |