Right-Sizing Cities in the United States: Defining Its Strategies

ABSTRACT:

This article explores the right-sizing paradigm. Currently, in the growing literature on the right-sizing conception of planning there are not any clearly delineated strategies on what it means to right-size. Right-sizing strategies are clearly articulated in this article in an effort to understand this paradigm in a more comprehensive fashion. This is not being done among scholars in this field and is necessary to determine empirically if these strategies improve the quality of life in shrinking cities. The purpose of this article is to provide a source for researchers attempting to assess the various right-sizing efforts across the United States. The strategies in this article are not final; additional strategies could be included later under the right-sizing planning conception. At this stage in the literature, five major built environment strategies are the most cited: land banking, rehabilitation, demolition, consolidation, and “greening.”

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Daniel Hummel

Daniel Hummel received his PhD at Florida Atlantic University in Public Administration with a focus on public budgeting and finance. He is currently an Assistant Professor at Idaho State University in the Department of Political Science. He studies issues related to municipal fiscal stress, declining cities, right-sizing, and alternative public financing strategies. He also teaches courses on public budgeting and finance and community and regional planning.