How else could you raise the vast amounts of financing needed for such a project?  It&#x27;s not unreasonable that if you put forward $100M on a risky venture, you get x years of exclusive usage to generate a return on investment.<p>The article mentioned a failed kickstarter for a boston project -- the crowdfunding alternative has yet to be proven for large-scale infrastructure.<p>But it would be interesting if you could raise a bond like that from private citizens.  Literally have people invest in their city by purchasing shares of the municipal bond and have it paid back over 30 years of usage.  Not sure why that can&#x27;t be done... perhaps easier to mobilize $100M from a single private equity group than $1k from 100,000 individuals, perhaps rules about being an accredited investor before you&#x27;re deemed ready to invest in projects of that scale, or perhaps the lawyers are terrified of dealing with a class-action suit involving a chunk of the populace instead of a small number of private equity firms in the lawsuit if things go wrong.