I don't think any of the large metro areas have shrunk in population, certainly none significantly. But those metros (St Louis, Detroit, Buffalo, Cleveland, Chi

I don't think any of the large metro areas have shrunk in population, certainly none significantly. But those metros (St Louis, Detroit, Buffalo, Cleveland, Chicago, etc) have stagnated or grown much more slowly than healthier metros. They have suburbanized a mostly constant population, leading to much higher infrastructure construction and maintenance costs, while devaluing the real estate tax base that supported existing infrastructure in the central cities.