Our Favorite Freeway By Chris Lancaster Publisher, Civic Publications They chatted for a minute, maybe less, and my father here are many great roads in California, some rich in told the governor the conversation could wait until Monday. history, like Route 66, others renowned for majestic Sundays were for families, not freeways. The governor scenery, like the 101 winding along the coast. Some agreed. we take for granted for their power and utility, like the I-5 Eventually, the freeway was completed, north-south corridor. but my father did not see it. After more But there’s only one “My father was aware than 20 years in the State Legislature he stretch of road named for that the 210 extension retired from the Assembly in 1992, left us in my father. was critical to the 2000, and the extension opened in 2003. It might not have the vitality and economic kicks of Route 66, and it Assemblyman Dennis Mountjoy in 2002 stretches only from Duarte growth to eastern introduced to Rancho Cucamonga, but L.A. County and the Assembly Inland Empire.” I always smile when I see Resolution 2, a sign for the “William H. which named Lancaster Memorial Highway,” a portion the Foothill Freeway, from Chris Lancaster of the I-210 Foothill Freeway. Duarte to the I-15 Freeway, My father, the late Bill Lancaster, Vice-Chairman of the in honor of my father. Assembly Committee on Transportation, was all about I can assure you the transportation and especially all about extending the I-210 Lancaster family values from Duarte to Interstate 15. the remembrance and is But not on Sundays. grateful to you – the people One Sunday afternoon in the 1970s, Gov. Jerry Brown who paid for the road and who maintain it – to be called our home and asked to speak with Dad. I took the associated with the road in call – and as a teenager, you can imagine how impressed this way. Thank you. and excited I was to run up the stairs and call him to the William H. (Bill) Lancaster, Mayor of phone. Duarte, Age 30, Circa 1961. Above, Gov. Brown wanted to speak with Dad about the from left, siblings Dianne, Cort proposed 210 extension. My father wanted it, the governor Reprinted from and Chris Lancaster at the freeway opposed it. 2017 Mobility Section dedication for their late father in 2003. T 2 | COMMUNITY PROFILES 2021
Civic Publications Community Profiles 2021: Page 2
