WASHINGTON/DETROIT — For some U.S. Rust Belt cities, the future will be smaller and greener. As communities from Buffalo to Milwaukee struggle with shuttered factories and vacant neighborhoods, some have turned abandoned properties into parks, gardens and other open space, even going so far as to plow under entire neighborhoods. A recognition that the glory days of factory-powered prosperity will not return any time soon, this ‘shrinking cities’ strategy aims to consolidate what remains into denser neighborhoods and more vibrant downtowns. In Flint, Michigan, the birthplace of General Motors, a pioneering program that allows local government to capture profits from tax foreclosures has generated funds to demolish over 1,000 abandoned homes in the past five years. ‘There’s a gravitational pull that we’re a part of and it’s toward a smaller city,’ said Dan Kildee, treasurer of Genesee County surrounding Flint. ‘This is not a plan to shrink Flint, it’s an acknowledgment that we’ve lost half our population.’ Flint’s fortunes — like those of GM — have been on the decline for decades. In the late 1970s, there were more than 80,000 GM workers in Flint centered on a sprawling industrial complex known as Buick City. […]