"Land Values, Human Values, and the Preservation of the City's Treasured Appearance": Environmentalism, Politics, and the San Francisco Freeway Revolt

Abstract

The author appreciates thoughtful comments by Marilynn Johnson, Roger W. Lotchin, and Robert Fishman on earlier versions of this paper presented at the American Historical Association and the Society for American City and Regional Planning History conferences in 1997. Robert W. Cherny, Thomas R. Wellock, and three anonymous reviewers for the Pacific Historical Review likewise offered helpful suggestions. Special thanks are also due to the archivists and librarians at the San Francisco History Center of the San Francisco Main Public Library, the National Archives, the Caltrans Library, the Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley, and the College of Behavioral and Social Science at San Francisco State University for making time available for research and writing. 1. San Francisco Board of Supervisors, Resolution Number 45-59, Jan. 23, 1959; copies of Board of Supervisors resolutions are in folder 62, Collection, San Francisco History Center, San Francisco Main Public Library (hereafter cited with the name of the document, followed by the folder number, followed by Freeway Collection). The ninety separate folders pertaining to San Francisco freeways at the History Center contain originals and copies of city and state documents pertaining to freeways from the Department of City Planning, San Francisco Public