Whittier Boulevard, Sixth Street Bridge, and the Origins of Transportation Exploitation in East Los Angeles

Abstract

Faced with immense increases in automobile traffic, during the 1920s, Los Angeles city engineers improved Whittier Boulevard through the east side. To keep costs low, the engineers took land from parks and playgrounds. In short, local residents, mostly lower-income Mexican Americans, Jews, and other “undesirables,” wouldpaythe social costs ofhighway buildingin East Los Angeles.By the 1940s,poorlyde-signed roads helped fuel the reformist politics of Edward Roybal but also helped state transportation planners to justify extensive freeway constructionin the area. Spatial exploitationforhighways contributed to the projection of place-based ethnic identity among the Mexican American people who became a majority of east side population after World War II.