I'm glad that Chris pointed out the white/non-white binary perspective that Avila brings to his study of the freeway. The interracial impact of freeways is also important to consider, and as Chris observes, non-white adaptation to freeways very greatly within any given race. That said, I think Avila’s book argues successfully that public art and performance beneath freeways reveals a perception of a white/non-white urban planning dichotomy that is held by the people most dramatically affected by them. I found the examples from the New Orleans neighborhood of Treme to be particularly striking in this way. The jazz concerts held beneath the overpass are remarkable celebrations of blackness that assert the presence of black people beneath an unwelcome infringement of their unique cultural space.

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