If You Build It, Will They Come?: The Century Freeway Opens

After nearly a decade of waiting, filled with deterioration and disappointment, the City of Lynwood wanted it to be known that this was cause for celebration. The first contract had been awarded and Lynwood would be the first of the corridor cities to have picks and hammers swinging. City leaders planned for the event, cheekily-titled “The Groundbreaking of The Century” which was to take place on May 1st, 1982. Coffee and donuts would be served as guests took in performances from the Compton NuWay Xylophone Band and a marching band from Norwalk. With over 20 Federal, State and local officials expected to attend, it seemed to be an odd, yet fitting, way to mark the beginning of construction for a freeway that had so irreparably scarred the city.

The unwavering John Byork was adamant that he wanted the ground breaking “to be more than just a few politicians turning a shovel of dirt.” Instead, he hoped to treat the occasion as “a celebration for the people of the Corridor and for those public officials who have worked on the Freeway over the years.” Presumably he meant those that managed to survive the dark days, months and years that followed the court injunction. Perhaps those that hung around felt a sense of relief knowing that the onset of construction was likely to remedy many of the ills of the corridor, but it’s clear if corridor residents were in as jovial of a mood as Mr. Byork when the day of the ceremony arrived. 

Around the same time, officials prepared a document touting Lynwood’s attractive attributes that were expected to operate alongside a completed freeway in luring new business to the city:

Lynwood has successfully mastered its challenges of the last decade and emerged as a vibrant, multi-ethnic, multi-cultural city where the designation “All-America City” is more applicable than ever before. Construction of the I-105 Century Freeway has begun and the City is poised and ready to take advantage of the economic opportunities from the new freeway.

Yet, in 1978 when the Final Environmental Impact Statement was submitted, it was noted that there would be further damage done to economics prospects. Lynwood was going to see the “by far the greatest share of total remaining displacement” and over 30% of employment displacement was set to occur within the city limits. In total, Lynwood would sustain an 8.5% actual dollar loss to its economic base. 

The Finished Product

In its finished form, The Century Freeway runs from Los Angeles International Airport to Interstate 605. The freeway is 17.3 miles of concrete glory that proved itself to be one of most complex and expensive highway endeavors in the world. 

Yet even with the freeway completed in all of its glory, driving down the stretch of Long Beach Boulevard that passes through Lynwood leaves one with the impression of a corridor in distress. Stretching from the WalMart that displaced the legendary Compton Swapmeet down through Tweedy Boulevard, there is no shortage of rundown motels, and save for a few shiny new fast food restaurants most other buildings look worn down and only passably functional. This region in particular, home to Lynwood’s singular off ramp from Interstate 105 was supposed to be the key to unlocking the spoils from the decades-long Century project. 

According to Emerson, city officials estimated that the completion of the freeway would “significantly enhance their ability to develop” over 200 acres of industrial land. The plan was to generate 4.5 million square feet of industrial buildings and over 16,000 new jobs. While such lofty metrics were often used throughout the process by Century proponents, it was largely unclear which agencies, if any, were tasked with performing specific measurements against indicators not explicitly included in the Consent Decree. And as what proved to be the case, even those indicators included in the Consent Decree were subject to much delay and gross underperformance. 

In the years leading up to the freeway’s opening, my friends and I would ride our bikes up and down the interchange that would connect the 710 with the 105. Without fail we’d be ushered off the yet-to-open highway by workers in trucks that seemed to constantly patrol the area. They were never mean spirited and they seemed to understand the allure of exploring the concrete maze that the freeway was proving to be. 

However, even with all of the high hopes, the freeway’s pre-launch claim to fame proved to be a cameo in the 1994 action thriller Speed starring Keanu Reeves and Sandra Bullock. Beyond this moment of glory, the freeway opened with its singular Lynwood exit at Long Beach Boulevard. Economic conditions in Lynwood in the years that followed the opening of the Century Freeway ran directly counter to the hopes of local leaders who envisioned the project as just the economic jolt Lynwood needed to once again become a major player on the map. The hopes were that jobs and shoppers and new community members would help a lost city find its way one more. Yet, those promises have largely gone unmet. 

In a 2014 profile of the city by the Southern California Association of Governments, it was noted that 59% of Lynwood households earned less than $50,000 annually. More than half of the city’s aging housing stock is rented instead of owned and only 7% of city residents actually “commuted” to work destinations within the city. And between 2007 and 2013, the city saw a nearly 70% decrease in manufacturing jobs.

Much ado was made about the Mongtomery Ward that set up shop in the city. Even the Final Environmental Impact Statement identified the department store as being a major travel generator in the region. The store was to be the anchor of the Lynwood Towner Center, but the other big tenants never showed. Eventually Montgomery Ward itself would depart creating a void that would later become Plaza Mexico. 

In the leadup to the freeway’s opening, there was no getting around the fact that cities like Lynwood and Compton struggled mightily on the unemployment front. In 1980 Lynwood sat at 8.5%. This jumped to 13.5% in 1983 and fell slightly to 9.5% in 1986. The city’s identity as a manufacturing hub was beginning to be hollowed out as it was forced to begin a long (and still ongoing) journey towards being a service-oriented economy. These realizations likely only served to further fuel local desires for the freeway project to see its way to completion as quickly as possible. But it’s not clear that even with a 2nd offramp at Alameda the city would have managed to win over new shoppers and employers due to severe scarring and other reputational damage that had been done in the leadup to the beginning of construction. 

It should also be noted that it hasn't exactly been smooth sailing for the freeway itself since opening in 1993. It was discovered in 1999 that segments of the freeway in Downey were suffering from erosion caused by groundwater. Prior determinations had been made to build this particular section below ground level and CalTrans had invested north of $20 million into repairs before eventually disclosing these costs to the Legislature.

-Dontae Rayford