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Urban renewal with a conservative flair
by rd95

    The fundamental principle behind MAPS was that the city would not put a shovel in the ground for any given project until all the money for that project was in the bank. That way, every cent would go toward building – not toward interest.

    “We have people [from other cities] contact us probably monthly, asking about the MAPS program, and usually it gets around to, ‘How did you finance this?’ And when we tell them we didn’t finance it, they’re shocked,” says David Todd, who has headed up the MAPS office for the past six years.

    While the funding structure was relatively unique, so was the patience required of citizens. They had to pay into MAPS coffers for more than four years before the first major project – the ballpark – was completed.