May 17, 1966: 58 years ago, May 17 1964, over 5,000 people gathered in San Francisco's [...]
58 years ago, May 17 1964, over 5,000 people gathered in San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park to protest a proposed freeway which would have cut through the park’s panhandle. Later that year, the Golden Gate Freeway was successfully defeated
The event featured a speech by Kenneth Rexroth and music by Malvina Reynolds, who composed the song “Cement Octopus” for the occasion. The rally was a high point in city’s largely successful “Freeway Revolt” of the ’50s and ’60s that prevented several freeways from being built
There’s a cement octopus sits in Sacramento, I think.
Gets red tape to eat, gasoline taxes to drink.
And it grows by day and it grows by night,
And it rolls over ev’rything in sight.
Oh, stand by me and protect that tree
From the freeway misery.
