The movement calls for communities to cordon off mostly vacant areas, cut them off from city services and let the land return to nature. It’s headed by Genesee County Land Bank Chairman Dan Kildee, who has drawn national attention for his efforts. As TWI noted recently, Kildee has been asked by the Obama administration and by a group of charities to explore the shrinking cities approach for other communities beyond Flint.

But urban ideas that play well on the national stage don’t always have the same reception closer to home, the Messenger says.

Businessman Dayne Walling and former state representative and current Genesee County Commissioner Brenda Clack, both Democrats, are facing off against one another in an August election. Both candidates recently expressed some doubts about the movement — and pressed for more details. Walling, for example, noted that there are thousands of houses that need to be torn down, “but we need to make sure that residents have every opportunity to weigh in on the process. Every neighborhood needs a unique solution.”

From the Messenger:

Clack called the shrinkage push a “political bullet,” adding that she is worried about residents who are low income or senior citizens living in properties that the land bank might have its eyes on being left out of a place to live.

“I don’t believe in removing people,” she said. “In some areas there are one or two abandoned homes on a block that need to be torn down, but we don’t even have the money to tear them down.”

Clack said that the shrinkage idea would “not be a top priority” for her if she was elected mayor.

“You re-pattern the city, you don’t shrink it,” she said.

Both candidates said they were concerned over the current lack of specifics regarding the shrinkage push.

“It’s partly controversial because not that much is known about it,” Walling said. “Right now it seems more like a catch phrase, not a plan.”

Former Flint Interim Mayor Michael Brown had jumpstarted the shrinking cities idea by suggesting in March that the city should cut off service to abandoned areas as a way to deal with blight.

Now that the shrinking cities idea is a movement, it could be something that sounds like a great idea — unless it happens to be your neighborhood that’s on the chopping block.

As The Wall Street Journal reports today, other towns also in financial peril are considering another approach – “disincorporation.” It means dissolving a town — literally. That could allow residents to avoid paying local taxes, escape the costs of local services and pensions, and get other services more cheaply by sharing the costs with the surrounding county.

Disincorporations are rare, usually resulting from population declines that leave too few residents to support the government. The most recent in California occurred in 1972, when stalled growth and political instability led Cabazon to dissolve itself, according to the California Association of Local Agency Formation Commissions. In Washington state, the last one occurred in 1965, when Elberton gave up its autonomy after 70 years, according to the nonprofit Municipal Research and Services Center in Seattle.

Today, some small municipalities are exploring the step to escape some financial burdens that have been exacerbated by the recession.

Several small  towns in Washington state, Colorado, and California are considering disincorporation seriously, but it’s not clear whether they’ll have the legal authority to go through with it. Disincorporation wasn’t intended to be used by towns to escape financial burdens, according to The Journal. And besides, many counties and surrounding towns aren’t in much better financial shape, and are likely be reluctant to take on more costs.

Dissolving a town also means giving up a local government, with its ability to raise money through bond issues or taxes, and its control over development and zoning issues. The Journal described the move as a “once unthinkable” option for most communities. But as the shrinking cities movement and disincorporation attempts tell you, nothing’s off the table during a financial crisis.