I don't think they will be salvaged actually. I think we'll have a combination of less city friendly states not assisting at all leading to companies wanting to force office work in some "spilled milk" style fallacy.

There's less than zero chance any of these downtowns will be covered to residential. Offices and homes have very different needs, you basically can't convert.

> Can kicking is the only solution.

Oh come on, we can do far more than can kicking. There is always war, revolution, and decades of economic hardship!