Rightsizing Shrinking Cities: A New Perspective on Urban Design for the U.S. City

Abstract

This paper explores the concept of “rightsizing,” a policy response to the mismatch between shrinking city populations, physical infrastructures, and budgets. Cities such as Detroit, built for populations more than double their current size, face the challenge of maintaining unmanageable quantities of streets, utilities, and housing. While rightsizing is difficult in the decentralised, market-driven U.S. planning system, it raises fundamental questions: What form should shrinking cities take? Who should live where? Who pays for relocation and restructuring? The paper argues that urban design must be central to any rightsizing vision, offering opportunities to reshape the built environment in ways that also address economic and social needs. It examines New Urbanism, landscape urbanism, and everyday urbanism, before proposing “patchwork urbanism,” inspired by Lynch’s polycentric network, as a new design ideal for shrinking cities. Policy directions to support implementation of this approach are also suggested.