Want a Bike Path? Pay for It Yourself @business

An artist's rendering of the new crowdfunded bike lane expected to open in Denver this year.

 

Alta Planning

Your friends ask you to fund their marathon training, their home renovations, even their potato salad. Why not crowdfund something you'd actually use, such as a bike path or a public park?

That's what a growing number of startups are helping people do, as communities with a goal look for sources of financing outside the municipal bond market.

"More and more, people are seeing this as a great alternative avenue ... to going through your tax dollars or local public servant," says Slava Rubin, the chief executive officer of Indiegogo, a crowdfunding platform. Rubin says he started seeing public works projects on the site in 2011, with campaigns funding such small-scale infrastructure projects as a $1,000 dog park in Chicago, and that he expects interest only to increase.

[Keep reading at Bloomberg]