Why I Ride: Low & Slow

In the eighties in San Francisco's Mission District on weekends, the streets were packed with a parade of candy-apple paint and shiny chrome, lowriders cruising down Mission Street, whose sidewalks were filled with young Latinos and other spectators who came for the weekend ritual to gather, socialize, and dance to oldies. Through lowriding, young people expressed cultural pride and claimed their public space, but this soon became threatened by police harassment when anti-cruising laws changed the community. Why I Ride:Low and Slow takes you on a cruise with the Mission District's original lowriders who tell their story of organized resistance to San Francisco's City Hall for the right to public space, which culminated in the founding of a lowrider park and a new generation of community activists.