In response to Fonzy's blog post, I was particularly struck by the continuity of activism against the material spectre of the freeway. The mobilizations enacted by Chicana women in the middle of the 20th century works as a form of legacy for Isella Ramirez and the East Yard Communities for Environmental Justice. The fixity of the freeway, and the creativeness needed by organizers to critique the system, is perhaps the most resilient part of this activist geneaology. Avila demonstrates how women protested against the development of highways in places like New York, how they later admonished the established infrastructure through cultural forms like art and literature, and the more contemporary development of digital presence and non-profit work. While we can praise the efforts of these organizers, the material realities of the freeway's entrenchment in Los Angeles-- socially, economically, and politically-- merits further conversation. How do we in the contemporary moment reconcile freeway activism with both the rootedness of the problem in the physical landscape and the necessity for a city dependent on automobiles?

A book I've found to be helpful in answering questions of modern-day activism is Grace Lee Bogg's The Next American Revolution: Sustainable Activism for the Twenty-First Century (more info at http://www.ucpress.edu/book.php?isbn=9780520269248). How is this text helpful in imagining the next freeway revolts?

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