ABSTRACT
This chapter examines a variety of urban policy responses to shrinkage and decline within the context of the current ideology guiding policymaking in the United States. It highlights selected policy instruments that are repeatedly deployed in shrinking cities to reverse their trajectories. The chapter reviews the pro-growth approach within the context of neoliberal ideology and neoclassical economic theory. It describes a non-exhaustive selection of conventional growth/decline management strategies for shrinking cities, through the lens of the American model of urban development. The particular development logic - the American model of urban development - is held up by three key pillars such asdevolution, inter-governmental competition, and public entrepreneurship. The chapter concludes by summarizing recent calls for decline-oriented development logics to supplant growth-first mentalities in shrinking cities. Targeting chronically vacant and abandoned structures, including city-owned foreclosures, "massive demolition programs" aim to clear land for private development, while also reducing a city's overall vacancy rate.
