Shrinking the Rust Belt

New Geography reports here: http://www.newgeography.com/content/00883-shrinking-rust-belt. An excerpt below:

Many cities around the country, especially in the Rust Belt have experienced major population loss in their urban cores which has sometimes spilled into their entire metro area. They have thousands of abandoned homes, decayed infrastructure, environmental challenges, and no growth to justify a belief that many districts will ever be repopulated.

Medium sized cities like Flint and Youngstown have been more willing to face up to challenges. In contrast, places like Detroit, Cleveland, and Buffalo still see themselves as important national cities. Pride is blocking the effort to undertake a major managed shrinkage program. Instead of adjusting to reality, these cities continue to pour hundreds of millions into projects that vainly attempt to restart growth. .

Hopefully, a recentralized, shrinking Buffalo will become more pedestrian and bicycle friendly as destinations become closer together. This in turn would benefit Buffalo's social, economic, environmental and health quality of life indicators.