Virtually no one lives on Miltonia Avenue on Youngstown's east side, but it wasn't supposed to be that way. The city's chief planner Anthony Kobak points to utility wires and rusted fire hydrants that line the street. But its an odd juxtaposition - there are no driveways and no homes.
Anthony Kobak: This was a situation where the city was ready for this development and it never happened, but you still have these streets and all this infrastructure that needs to be maintained.
When Youngstown was the country's third largest steel producer, planners in the 1950s saw only growth. But after the mills closed in the 70s and 80s, the city lost more than half its population. Left behind were miles and miles of crumbling streets lined with empty homes, churches, schools and factories.
Hunter Morrison: Youngstown is perhaps the poster child of the decline that's occurred in the industrial heartland.
Youngstown State University's Hunter Morrison has been helping put together the city's development plan. It sounds simple, but it's actually pretty radical, says city Mayor Jay Williams.
Mayor Jay Williams: I know for mayors, there are these magical round numbers: 100,000 sounds great and somehow puts you in a different category, but why not be a city of 80 or 85 thousand that offers a quality of life that allows you to compete?
Youngstown has spent over a million dollars to demolish 400 structures in the past two years. The Brookings Institute's Jennifer Vey says the city is building one of the most aggressive proposals in the country to deal with rust belt decline.
Jennifer Vey: A lot of eyes are going to be on Youngstown because many of these cities are grappling with a lot of the same issues in terms of population loss, economic declines, declines in jobs.
The question now is exactly how to execute the plan. At Fellows Riverside Garden, planners meet with residents to hash out ideas for local neighbors fighting early signs of blight.
Anthony Kobak: Here's a possibility for how that street could end...
Officials hope ideas like this and proposals to turn abandoned lots into parks will get neighbors excited to stay and invest in their homes. Long time resident Doug Cressman has watched neighbors leave and says these plans seem realistic.
Doug Cressman: I think it's finally time for the city to move on and concentrate on what it can do now for the people who live here now.
This is the first of dozens of neighborhood brainstorming sessions set for this year. Officials want to invest in areas where neighbors are fighting blight, and close down others too empty to save. Planner Anthony Kobak stands outside a home that has only overgrown trees and hip high grass for neighbors and says the city will not force anyone to move.
Anthony Kobak: This person might relocate in an adjacent neighborhood... or they might say we like this so we'll work with them to acquire all these lots. But we'll also say, we're not going to maintain this road, now it's going to be a private drive. That's going to be up to you.
The city has not yet said exactly what parts of town that will close and there are worries that those neighborhoods will be home to Youngstown's poorest residents. But it's not just getting people to move that's the challenge. Rutgers University's Frank Popper says controlled shrinkage is hard to sell to a culture used to suburban sprawl and growth.
Frank Popper - We've never done it in this Youngstown like prototypical industrial city...
Mhari Saito: You mean it's never been done in this large of a populated area?
Frank Popper: Right, with such obvious high stakes politics at least for the local people.
Youngstown is also looking at cutting the number of local politicians. But maybe to no one's surprise Mayor Williams says talks to reduce the number of city council seats and local wards have not gone as well as plans to shrink this city. I'm Mhari Saito, 90.3.