Why Nothing Works: Who Killed Progress—and How to Bring It Back

by Marc J. Dunkelman

Section 4(f) remains on the books today, modified only on the margins, and subject to the same interpretation. Anytime a federal transportation dollar is invested in any improvement—any new road, or high-speed rail line, or pedestrian bridge, or bike trail, or airport, or seaport—that has any significant bearing on a bit of public green space, it must undergo a 4(f) review. The impact has not been to make it entirely impossible to build new infrastructure in the United States.31 Rather, the change has impacted who chooses to build what. Justice Marshall’s ruling was apiece with a whole range of other procedural changes that spread decision-making power so wide and thin that nearly anyone with an objection could exert powerful leverage over what can or can’t get done. And the question today, as we’ll see, is whether that shift has all been for the good.