This Arizona bill would prohibit city bans on lowrider cruising. Here's how it would work
An Arizona lawmaker is looking to protect car cruising, a long-criminalized activity often participated in and cherished by lowrider clubs — a cultural Mexican-American tradition.
House Bill 2332, introduced by Rep. Cesar Aguilar, D-Phoenix, would do away with ordinances commonly referred to as "No Cruising" laws in Valley cities. Though varying in definition and language by city, laws like the one in Phoenix make it illegal for drivers to pass a “traffic control point three times within a two-hour period in or around a posted no cruising area.”
The proposed legislation was nicknamed the “Cruising Bill” by Rep. David L. Cook, who chairs the Committee on Transportation & Infrastructure, during a Jan. 31 meeting. There, with bipartisan support, it received a do-pass vote of 7 to 3.
HB 2332 now passes to the Rules Committee before it lands on the House floor.
Support for 'Cruising Bill'
Community members expressing their support for the bill included former state Rep. Mark Cardenas, who owns a lowrider, and Johnny Lozoya, the respected Chicano photographer who has documented lowrider culture in Phoenix for decades.
Cardenas reflected on the days when people would cruise on Grand Avenue, where he and his partner would walk their dog and admire the cars.
“One thing that really struck me, and I still talk about today, is the families that were out there,” he said before the committee. “Families who have passed it down from generation to generation.”
The cruises on Grand Avenue brought out people of all ages, creating a community around the cars. However, Phoenix shut down the weekend events in 2020.
“It seems as if people who own lowriders, such as myself, are constantly being chased around in the city to find a new place to enjoy what we do,” Cardenas added.
Lozoya contextualized the lowrider movement as a global event.
“Lowriding has transcended all across borders, all across counties, states, you name it,” Lozoya said. “Lowriding is all over the world.”
Lozoya expressed his support for the bill after seeing the success of a similar bill signed into law in California in October 2023. The law did away with a restriction that prohibited the body of a vehicle from riding closer to the ground than the bottom of its rims, as well as the ability for cities to impose cruising bans.
Marisol Oliva-Valenzuela, a community member residing in Legislative District 24 and the president of the Arizona Cruise Council, expressed her opposition to the bill.
“There have not been any issues with any type of cruising or any type of car enthusiast,” she said. “For us to bring up the ‘right to cruise’ is irrelevant. We already have that right.”
Oliva-Valenzuela’s concern was with government oversight on cruising. This was echoed by Rep. Steve Montenegro, who voted nay on the bill.
“Once you introduce language or legislation into the books, into the codes even if it’s to protect, you’re automatically giving it over to those government municipalities and they start working around it,” he explained before voting on the bill.
Cultural significance in the Valley
Aguilar said he has high hopes for the bill as it continues to make its way through the Legislature, especially due to the cultural relevance of cruising and lowriding in Arizona.
Lowriding has undoubtedly left its cultural imprint in the Valley. Just this past year the Phoenix Suns commissioned a car to be custom-painted in honor of the culture. Visit Phoenix, the nonprofit organization promoting metro Phoenix tourism, has a cruising event in Glendale listed on its events page.
In an interview with The Arizona Republic, Aguilar shared his memories of visiting the iconic South Plaza, a hub for lowriding in south Phoenix, and seeing his family participate in the lowrider scene.
While working on this house bill, he talked with his dad about the history of people participating in the culture in the 1980s and '90s.
A focal point was how hard-on-crime laws, which were staples of the Reagan, Bush and Clinton administrations, criminalized the people in the lowrider scene as they targeted Black and Brown communities across the country, he said.
“Fast forward to today, when you’re looking at the lowrider clubs, these are high-end cars. They are not cheap,” he laughed. “Nobody is going around in a lowrider gangbanging.”
Aguilar said he has spoken to people involved in car clubs, many of whom work for the city or are state employees, some even working in police departments. As a response to the magnifying glass placed on them by police and governments, many of the car clubs have strict rules on drinking and prohibit drugs.
During the committee meeting, Aguilar contrasted the days when lowriding was more intertwined with street crime.
“We are in a very different age. A lot of people who grew up in this culture, they’ve taught their kids to respect their car, to respect what they are doing and they want to keep this culture going on,” he said before concluding his remarks.
Have a question you need answered? Reach the reporter at rromeroruiz@gannett.com. Follow him on X, formerly Twitter @raphaeldelag.
This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Arizona legislation would prohibit city bans on lowrider cruising
