Freewaytopia

How Freeways Shaped Los Angeles

By: Paul Haddad, Patt Morrison (Foreword by)

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Paperback | 11 January 2022

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384 Pages

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22.8 x 15.5 x 2.3

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Carmageddon, Beauty Queens, and the Hollywood Split: How Freeways Shaped Los Angeles

From the Arroyo Seco, which began construction during the Great Depression, to the Simi Valley and Century Freeways, which were completed in 1993, author Paul Haddad provides an entertaining and engaging history of the 527 miles of road that comprise the Los Angeles freeway system.

Each of Los Angeles's twelve freeways receives its own chapter, and these are supplemented by "Off-Ramps"-sidebars that dish out pithy factoids about Botts' Dots, SigAlerts, and all matter of freeway lexicon, such as why Southern Californians are the only people in the country who place the word "the" in front of their interstates, as in "the 5," or "the 101."

Carmageddon, Beauty Queens, and the Hollywood Split also explores those routes that never saw the light of day. Imagine superhighways burrowing through Laurel Canyon, tunneling under the Hollywood Sign, or spanning the waters of Santa Monica Bay. With a few more legislative strokes of the pen, you wouldn't have to imagine them-they'd already exist.

Haddad notably gives voice to those individuals whose lives were inextricably connected-for better or worse-to the city's freeways: The hundreds of thousands of mostly minority and lower-class residents who protested against their displacement as a result of eminent domain. Women engineers who excelled in a man's field. Elected officials who helped further freeways . . . or stop them dead in their tracks. And he pays tribute to the corps of civic and state highway employees whose collective vision, expertise, and dedication created not just the most famous freeway network in the world, but feats of engineering that, at their best, achieve architectural poetry.

Finally, let's not forget the beauty queens-no freeway in Los Angeles ever opened without their royal presence.

Industry Reviews

"Freewaytopia deftly connects dreams, politics, new suburbs, and white privilege to tell the stories of L.A.'s freeways. Hostile to communities of color when they were built and loathed today by gridlocked drivers, the freeways still reveal a rough grandeur in their overpasses and interchanges. When the road ahead is unexpectedly open, L.A.'s freeways can be poetic. Paul Haddad has caught their vital rhythm." -D. J. Waldie, author of Becoming Los Angeles: Myth, Memory, and a Sense of Place

"Los Angeles freeways often get a bad rap, but author Paul Haddad finds the beauty in them. . . . The author's affection is reflected in his knack for unearthing fascinating facts about people and cultural events related to the creation of highways across the Southland."-AAA Westways

"Paul Haddad's Freewaytopia is a marvelous civic history of 12 essential routes that belt the urban expanse, all creations of the bikini and slide rule era. . . . Haddad writes with the love and skepticism of a native Angeleno, mining the archives for the distinctive news items that function as collective folklore. . . . [Freewaytopia] delivers exactly what it promises: a lively and fact-driven history of 12 freeways that adds up to a Los Angeles realist canvas. . . . Haddad's prose shines. . . . Freewaytopia is an easy read that packs a factual wallop." -Los Angeles Review of Books

"With verve and authority, [Haddad] loops you into Freewaytopia, an encyclopedic, anecdotal and photographic history of Los Angeles County's two dozen freeways. . . . Open to almost any page and you'll find a saga, a drama, a nugget to amaze your friends." -Patt Morrison, journalist, best-selling author, and radio-television personality

"Over the years there have been others like Joan Didion, Thomas Pynchon, David Brodsly, and Eric Avila among others that have also spotlighted Los Angeles freeways, but [Paul Haddad] might be the most comprehensive in how he examines the complete landscape." -Mike Sonksen, L.A. Taco

"The freeways of Los Angeles are so ubiquitous and functional that they're easy to ignore. But every mile of elevated roadway was carved from lost landscapes worth knowing. And in his nimbly written, deeply researched, myth-busting book, Paul Haddad chronicles both the growth and what was taken away-most often from the Angelenos who had the least to lose-as the city reshaped itself in the service of cars, speed and sprawl. Recommended for transit policy wonks, local history lovers and anyone who has missed their lane in a complicated cloverleaf and wondered why they built it that way." -Kim Cooper, Esotouric

"In his latest book, Freewaytopia: How Freeways Shaped Los Angeles, author Paul Haddad takes readers on a whirlwind tour through the history and lore of Los Angeles' sprawling highway system." -Engadget.com

"Endlessly absorbing and a joy to read. Paul Haddad knows Los Angeles inside and out and his love of the area shines forth in this book." -LA-Explorer.com

"Every city with freeways deserves its version of Freewaytopia." -Josh Stephens, contributing editor, California Planning & Development Report

Voted one of the Top Urban Planning Books of 2022 by Planetizen.com!

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