The program itself was a trivial cost, as it essentially fell into "regular maintenance" anyway. The difference was whether they did boring sidewalks and lights

The program itself was a trivial cost, as it essentially fell into "regular maintenance" anyway. The difference was whether they did boring sidewalks and lights or more visually appealing ones. And yes, for a time it really did help that downtown area. And again, in the case of the streets - even free wasn't good enough for some people. Often, what constitutes "waste" is really a matter of spin. During that time, the city was chastised as "anti-growth." Well, guess what, that's because a group of land developers wanted to build thousands of houses, but didn't want to set aside land for schools, fire departments, and other amenities that all the people living in those houses would need. Point being, you can't please all the people all of the time.