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This article draws on the results of an ethnographic survey conducted in a declining medium-sized city in central France. It analyzes the weakening of the local cultural petty bourgeoisie under the combined effects of national austerity policies, the crisis of municipal socialism, and urban decline. In this context, the members of this group are trying to exercise the symbolic power they still have in order to disqualify the social groups that question their legitimacy: the local economic bourgeoisie, which has been in municipal power since 2014; and the working classes residing in the city center, whose numbers have been increasing since the late 2000s. The class contempt shown toward these two groups gives the local cultural petty bourgeoisie collective social reassurance. The members of this group attempt to resist the cyclical and structural processes that threaten their existence.