By Mary Wisniewski

GARY, Ind., Nov 9 (Reuters) - Struggling U.S. Rust Belt cities for years have tried to counter the loss of manufacturing jobs with big, expensive projects like casinos and stadiums.

For cities such as Gary, Indiana; Flint, Michigan; and Youngstown, Ohio, these projects brought hope and headlines. Some delivered new revenue, but others brought new costs and mixed results.

Gary's underused Genesis Convention Center, for example, cost the city $3.6 million in repairs and operations in the past year alone.

Now, Gary Mayor Karen Freeman-Wilson and civic leaders of some other blighted cities are going small with strategic, narrowly focused ideas such as selling vacant homes for $1, demolishing derelict buildings and neighborhood clean-up projects that produce immediate results.

"It's a movement away from this singular, mega-project," said Toni Griffin, an architect and urban planner at City University of New York. "Where cities are moving to is a larger more strategic framework."

Gary, a struggling city 30 miles south of Chicago along the shores of Lake Michigan, is a prime example of the trend.

Known as the "Magic City" in the roaring 1920s for its spectacular growth, Gary is still home to U.S. Steel's largest plant, but the number of mill jobs has shrunk to 5,000 from 30,000 in the 1970s. Gary's population in 1960 was more than 178,000, but it disintegrated to just 79,000 by 2012.

Some one-third of its residents live in poverty and the home and business vacancy rate is about 35 percent. Gary recorded 43 murders in 2012 - three times as many per capita as nearby Chicago.

S. Paul O'Hara, a Xavier University professor who wrote a history of Gary, said Gary's problems may seem overwhelming, but a few small steps could build a foundation for better days.

Attempts have been made to revive Gary, including casinos and a minor-league baseball stadium.

Similar projects were tried in other cities - a trend known as the "Bilbao" effect after the Guggenheim Museum that revived Bilbao, Spain, said Terry Schwarz, director at Cleveland Urban Design Collaborative in Ohio.

SMALL STEPS TO REVIVAL

Flint provides an infamous example of how a big project can backfire. AutoWorld, an $80 million theme park opened in 1984, closed six months later due to low attendance. It was later demolished and the land acquired by the University of Michigan-Flint.

These days, Flint is having more success with the Genesee County Land Bank, which allows neighbors to buy adjoining lots cheaply, so they can expand their gardens. The Bank recently received $20.1 million in federal money for 1,661 building demolitions, according to the city.