"Imagine freeways along Lady Bird Lake in Austin, through Georgetown in Washington, along the beach in Santa Monica, through the French Quarter in New Orleans, or bisecting Cambridge between Harvard and MIT. Freeway builders had their sights set on all these places. They would've had their way, too, if not for the meddling protesters who foiled their schemes. The freeway revolt of the 1960s and '70s changed the course of American history, saving some of the nation's oldest and most-beautiful neighborhoods."
"It was clear that planned freeways in other scenic locations, like in Golden Gate Park and the Marina District, would have a similarly calamitous effect. Just a month after the Embarcadero freeway opened in 1959, the San Francisco Board of Supervisors voted against the construction of seven out of nine planned freeways across the city, defying the wishes of the governor and mayor. In doing so, they effectively rejected $280 million in federal funding, the equivalent of nearly $3 billion today."
Widespread freeway construction plans threatened cherished urban places across the United States, from downtown waterfronts to historic districts and university precincts. Public opposition in the 1960s and 1970s mobilized protesters and local officials to stop many proposed highways, preserving notable neighborhoods and landscapes. San Francisco experienced the damage wrought by an elevated Embarcadero Freeway and then chose to reject most planned freeways, forgoing large federal grants. That refusal signaled a shift in power, emboldening grassroots anti-freeway campaigns and altering municipal priorities about transportation, land use, and the protection of civic and scenic assets.
Read at Streetsblog
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