How to Downsize Detroit

Detroit has become the veritable poster child for the emerging movement to downsize and shrink older industrial cities. Here's the Detroit Free Press on "10 Tips for Downsizing Detroit." These five strike me as imperative:

• Stop calling it downsizing
• Never try to forcibly relocate residents
• Stop selling vacant land to speculators
• Don't expect urban farming to solve all the problems
• Use data to understand Detroit's neighborhoods

While you're at it, check out Roberta Gratz's terrific article over at Planetizen where she asks if the shrinking cities construct is really "urban renewal revisited" and this response.