{"id":303317,"date":"2026-05-06T23:09:10","date_gmt":"2026-05-06T23:09:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/303317\/"},"modified":"2026-05-06T23:09:10","modified_gmt":"2026-05-06T23:09:10","slug":"chicano-park-day-2026-lowriders-the-san-diego-trolley-san-diego-union-tribune","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/303317\/","title":{"rendered":"Chicano Park Day 2026, lowriders & the San Diego Trolley \u2013 San Diego Union-Tribune"},"content":{"rendered":"

I love lowriders and the culture of Mexican American familia that is integral to them. Lowriders are amazing, extremely customized cars and trucks. They are lowered, colorfully painted (often with airbrushed murals), typically American cars and trucks \u2014 especially iconic classics including Chevrolet Impalas and Monte Carlos, Cadillacs, Lincolns and pickup trucks \u2014 with meticulously engraved chrome, pinstripes, heavily customized interiors and manually controlled hydraulic or airbag suspensions. These are low and slow cruisers, often simultaneously seen raising and leaning back-and-forth, and side-to-side on their hydraulic suspensions.<\/p>\n

\"LiveLive music at Chicano Park Day 2026
\n(Jan Wagner)<\/p>\n

Often entire families are involved, from building the vehicles to going out as a family on cruises and gathering around at events, including the annual Chicano Park Day in the historic Barrio Logan area of San Diego, just south of downtown.<\/p>\n

Chicano Park Day dates back to April 22, 1970, when the community discovered, and subsequently peacefully overcame, the City of San Diego\u2019s plans to turn the area under the Coronado Bridge into a CHP station. The park is located under the welcome shade of the bridge, with beautiful, large and culturally significant murals painted on the massive bridge supports.<\/p>\n

\"OneOne of the many proud lowrider creators
\n(Jan Wagner)<\/p>\n

The April 25, 2026 Chicano Park Day featured not only a large and diverse collection of lowriders, as well as customized bicycles and motorcycles, and customized radio-controlled cars and trucks, but also live music, dancing, food, arts and crafts vendors, and more. I had not been to this event in several years. This year\u2019s was much larger and more heavily attended.<\/p>\n

Therein lies the reason for the reference to the San Diego Trolley in the title of this week\u2019s column. Events likely to attract large crowds require lots of parking. Chicano Park is in a neighborhood, surrounded by houses and small businesses, so parking large numbers of cars nearby is an issue. Online I read that since parking is limited, a better way to get there is to take the San Diego Trolley\u2019s Blue Line to Barrio Logan Station, which is very close to where Chicano Park Day is celebrated.<\/p>\n

\"MuralMural painted on a Coronado Bridge support
\n(Jan Wagner)<\/p>\n

Since I live in coastal North County, and already have plenty of experience parking in the free San Diego Trolley levels of the Nobel Station parking structure, and then taking the Blue Line as my first leg of taking the Trolley to San Diego Comic-Con each summer, this seemed like a no-brainer \u2014 certainly better than driving all the way to south of downtown San Diego and then trying to find convenient parking.<\/p>\n

When I go to San Diego Comic-Con, the Trolley fills up mostly with people going to Comic-Con, often wearing their costumes. It is friendly, jovial, laid-back bunch of fellow travelers. This, however, was just a typical Saturday, and the Trolley ride would pass through downtown San Diego \u2014 an area popular with our homeless population.<\/p>\n

There were still plenty of available seats when I boarded the Trolley, so I sat down and placed my large shoulder bag on the seat beside me. As the Trolley proceeded south, more and more people got on board, and the seats filled up. A loud, hyperactive young man boarded and asked me to move my shoulder bag, so that he could sit there. I moved my bag and gave him a thumbs-up. He was very fidgety and moved around a lot \u2014 both in his seat, and out and quickly back into the Trolley car at the stations. He played loud music and initiated loud and clearly unwelcome conversations with strangers. A woman told me that he was high on drugs. Other people in the car voiced their displeasure with his behavior \u2014 one shouting at him to \u201cShut up!\u201d<\/p>\n

I was worried because I was wearing one of my large, expensive, professional Canon cameras on my camera vest, and there were no security officers on board. I busied myself with my cellphone, but I should have stood up and moved away from him.<\/p>\n

At one of the stations where he got off the Trolley, he failed to get back on quickly enough before the Trolley left the station. A loud cheer erupted from my fellow passengers.<\/p>\n

\"SanSan Diego Trolley at Nobel Station
\n(Jan Wagner)<\/p>\n

Soon thereafter I arrived at Barrio Logan station. I had a great afternoon at Chicano Park Day and took hundreds of photos.<\/p>\n

To explore a wide variety of content dating back to 2002, with the most photos and the latest text, visit \u201cAutoMatters & More\u201d at https:\/\/automatters.net. Search by title or topic in the Search Bar in the middle of the Home Page or click on the blue \u2018years\u2019 boxes and browse.<\/p>\n

Copyright \u00a9 2026 by Jan Wagner \u2013 AutoMatters & More #926<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"I love lowriders and the culture of Mexican American familia that is integral to them. Lowriders are amazing,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":303318,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[310,1002,74,76,75],"class_list":["post-303317","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-diego","tag-del-mar-times","tag-del-mar-times-opinion","tag-san-diego","tag-san-diego-headlines","tag-san-diego-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/303317","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=303317"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/303317\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/303318"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=303317"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=303317"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=303317"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}