"The challenges are enormous, " said Joseph Seneca, a professor of economics at Rutgers University, who in December published a paper on the rise of empty suburban campuses in New Jersey.

WSJ: Developer Has Vision for Goodyear's Former Headquarters in Akron

Reshma Shetty thinks an empty-looking circle on a plain piece of paper could change the world.

FORBES: Do-It-Yourself Life

Now the trains are going back west empty, but he hopes to fill them with beer, soda, water and paper, all of which already go west-to-east.

FORBES: Join The Cold Train

They both went in a great hurry, and when they were gone the house seemed dreadfully quiet and empty, and the children wandered from one room to another and looked at the bits of paper and string on the floors left over from the packing, and not yet cleared up, and wished they had something to do.

NPR: Excerpt: 'Five Children and It'