I was debating whether to use all caps; ghost-towns being too small, unworthy of ALL CAPS. 
A New Yorker reviewer used a fine bit of word play with allusions to place before it was empty.
This phrase “ghost-town in waiting” seems aptly suited to some-one like me, my brain toying with undiagnosed early stages of dementia.
I have suggested I would be happy to be “MINISTER OF EMPTY SPACES”seeing as there were so many during COVID. The spaces would be Covid free, and I would work from home. Nothing doing.