After becoming Professor of Macroeconomics at the Fluminense Federal University in the neighbouring city of Niterói, Maia became active in the Democratic Labour Party (PDT), founded by Leonel Brizola.

He frequently courted media attention through the use of so-called factoids; small antics that went from the eccentric to the ridiculous, for example his proposed special monetary unit, legal tender only in Rio de Janeiro.

The renewal would involve sidewalk repair and replacements, urban furnishings, street lights, landscaping, as well as aesthetic redesigning of each neighbourhood to give each its own specific visual identity.

[9] Rio-Cidade, however, was from the outset criticised perceived poor architectural choices, such as a giant cast iron obelisk[10] built in Ipanema, together with an elevated causeway across a street that never opened to the public[11] and was eventually razed in 2009 at the locals' behest.

[17] Favela-Bairro, however, as much as it was presented as a plan for drastic improvement of actual living conditions, was seen as having failed in one of its chief concerns, that of blurring the boundaries between the "formal" city and the shantytown: in the words of scholar Janice Perlman, "there's still no doubt about where the asfalto ends and the morro begins".

[22] Similar criticism met many of Maia's other projects, as in the case of Linha Amarela, an express highway that displaced some 10,000 people to foster private automobile traffic between the Barra da Tijuca district and downtown Rio.

[26] The scheme was eventually shelved as a court decision declared the contract between the Rio City Hall and the Guggenheim Foundation to be against Brazilian law,[27] the project being described as "a piece of hubris and folly worthy of Maia's Roman namesake".