Explaining the Improbable: Local Redevelopment in the Wake of Federal Cutbacks

Federal cutbacks in urban aid in the 1970s forced cities to finance redevelopment projects with their own resources. Freed from federal rules and regulations, cities responded with invention, devising new financial strategies that proved to be powerful alternatives to direct federal aid. The process that fostered the solutions—public-private dealmaking—transformed the nature of city development practice, raising with it troublesome issues of accountability. This article describes these financial strategies and the nature of public subsidies in the deals. Then it argues that the accountability problem poses a policy dilemma that makes it a hard target of reform.