Politics and Memory Along the Highways of Los Angeles

[struggle4progress]

by D. J. Waldie
on February 18, 2013 2:00 PM

A mile-and-three-quarters section of the 91, roughly between the Central Avenue overpass and the Crystal Casino at Alameda Street is named the Willard H. Murray, Jr. Freeway. The rectangular green-and-white sign on the barren verge of the roadway is few hundred feet before the Central Avenue overpass. The sign near the Alameda Street crossing seems to be missing ...

Somewhere near the western edge of Compton, the Willard H. Murray, Jr. Freeway begins and the Rudolph B. Davila Memorial Freeway ends. Rudolph B. Davila's piece of freeway is a memorial. He died in 2002. The piece of nondescript freeway named for Willard H. Murray, Jr. honors a lively politician ...

Vietnam veterans are puzzled why Assemblyman Jeff Gorell (R-Camarillo) introduced a resolution last week to name part of Route 1 through Ventura County as the Seabee Memorial Highway. In 2002, the legislature designated all of Route 1 in Ventura County as the Ventura County Vietnam Veterans Highway ...

... All of former U.S. Route 6 -- now the 110 and the 5 -- is the Grand Army of the Republic Highway, but large sections have since become memorials for others. Gene Autry has a piece of the GAR highway. So does Dosan Ahn Chang Ho and Burbank Police Officer Matthew Pavelka. The interchange of the 101 and the 110 is dedicated to Bill Keene, the traffic and weather reporter for KNX Radio. The interchange of the 110 and the 91 memorializes Edmond J. Russ, a former Chairman of the Los Angeles County Transportation Commission ...

http://www.kcet.org/updaily/socal_focus/commentary/where-we-are/politics-and-memory-along-the-highways-of-los-angeles.html