Land values, human values, and the preservation of the city's treasured appearance: Environmentalism, politics, and the San Francisco freeway revolt

In 1956, neighborhood activists, a newspaper editor, a property developer, and a politician set in motion the San Francisco freeway revolt. By 1970, this new citizen rights movement claimed two important victories: The federal government cancelled its planned expressways through the city, and the state highway department rerouted the Junipero Serra Freeway in adjacent San Mateo County. This article describes the origins, development, and outcome of the freeway revolt, including the evolution of grass-roots activism, the growing environmentalist character of the movement, the role played by individuals of the social, political, and economic elite, and the importance of private and public policy-making institutions. The article begins with events in the 1940s that prefigured later freeway politics. It then describes the background of the 1956 vote by city supervisors that began the freeway revolt and the subsequent rejection of federal interstate highways through the city in 1959 and 1966. The article concludes with an account of the successful campaign to relocate the Junipero Serra Freeway that took place between 1965 and 1970.