Cruising is back. A new law has made lowriders legit

LOS ANGELES — As a teenager in the 1970s, Jovita Arellano would perch in the window of her family's National City apartment to watch the candy-colored parade of lowriders cruise down Highland Avenue.

She loved how the light reflected off their chrome rims and the gleam of paint that had been meticulously polished. Cars would ride so close to the ground that any small shift in weight caused their undercarriages to scrape against the pavement.

"I'm going to get a lowrider," she promised herself before she was even old enough to drive. "I don't care what it takes."

But cruising's days were numbered.

Many California cities banned the activity in the 1980s, with opponents maintaining that cruising was associated with gangs and violence. Such accusations, according to cruisers, stemmed from stereotypes that the mostly Latino community has faced for years.

"It felt like we were rejected," Arellano said. "We weren't allowed to drive our cars down the streets."

Then in 2021, a movement to decriminalize cruising began to, a bill that legalizes cruising across California and repeals cities' authority to individually outlaw the activity. The bill, signed into law last month by Gov. Gavin Newsom, also lifted a ban on vehicles that have any parts extending below the bottom of the rims.