Demolition Means Progress
From the NY Times: An Effort to Save Flint, Mich., by Shrinking It
I worked in growth management back in the day, but now Berkeley has a program called "Shrinking Cities in a Global Perspective Program".
Overall, it seems a shame to let all that sunk capital and infrastructure go to waste, and the wasted human capital associated with high unemployment also seems like it should be a temporary disequilibrium, surely someone could make use of it.