Reinventing a city is a challenge and a feat of such immense proportion that it can rival building a new city from the ground up. It requires no less than rethinking and rearchitecting everything that worked decades or centuries ago, for both present and future needs.
That’s why public-private partnerships, or P3s, are enjoying a renaissance. They provide a real, practical solution to cities’ most pressing problems. P3s are nothing new: Two of the most successful and most celebrated developments in U.S. history — the Erie Canal and the Transcontinental Railroad — date back to pioneering P3s of the 19th century. In one assessment, the Erie Canal was said to provide “a model of public-private partnerships that endure to this day.”
