Smogtown isn’t a new book, but the conflicts covered in its last chapters are still breaking news. The LA Times’ Trash talk and the real dirt on a toxic tour of Los Angeles, just featured one of Smogtown‘s history makers, Communities for a Better Environment. The group has been protesting pollution hazards, including those from freight transfer facilities, endured by communities along the 710 for the past 20 years.
The SR-710 extension gets a mention early on. The text contradicts claims that it is the “last remaining gap” in the system, saying that disgust with the results of freeway building scuttled almost 40 percent of the 1954 regional blueprint in the latter decades of the 20th century, including routes through Beverly Hills, Laurel Canyon and Pasadena.