La Raza & Barnum Park Day -A Cruise Down Fedz

A celebration of a proclamation from Denver City Council awarded to community to celebrate Denver’s cruising culture.

As a Denver native it is a a pleasure to have witnessed such a historic event. Growing up in Denver in the 80’s cruising was a right of passage, every weekend people would come out for this sort of event. Any one old enough to remember cruising 38th Avenue will remember parking in TJ’s parking lot and cruising from Elitches to Chubbys that was the strip. There are numerous cruising spots in Colorado, Lakewood had Colfax, Fort Collins and Longmont both had Main Street. Sundays it was the parks, Barnum, Huston, Berkeley and Pepsi.

 

Late in the 80’s in an effort to control cruising, they would block the streets to make it difficult to cruise, instead of that method working; everyone just moved to Federal. After they caught onto this, they began to barricade Federal as well and that is the reason we have curbed medians on federal, it wasn’t to make it nicer; it was to stop cruising. In the 80s, many politicians and local businesses demanded that police across the country restrict and ultimately ban the rites of “cruising” (driving around aimlessly) and “parking”. Cruising was considered a nuisance because it could interfere with people going about their daily errands and commutes. This inconvenience was tolerated for some time, but by the late 1970s, some local authorities and businesses were voicing concerns about an invasion of outsiders (often non-white ones) from different neighborhoods—in part a product of the expansion of freeway systems in areas such as suburban Los Angeles. Complaints like these prompted cruising bans across the country.

 

If you didn’t experience cruising in it’s prime, you may have missed out on some amazing times. Cruising has been around since the 50’s beginning In Los Angeles, I could even remember cruising on Hollywood Boulevard. There have even been classic movies about the  cruising lifestyle.  If you haven’t checked out some of the classics here’s a list for you: American Graffiti (1973), Boulevard Nights (1979) and The Hollywood Knights (1980).

 

Cruising will always be a lifestyle it may change but the roots will always be there. It’s about showing off your ride, cars are rolling works of art. You can move to the area and complain but this lifestyle has been here for decades and will remain. I urge you to research your area before you purchase and keep an open mind, you might actually enjoy it!

 

This is a community of car enthusiasts that will forever have a bond. The love of cars.

 

📷 Teddy G