Lowriders will be hopping at San Jose City Hall plaza this weekend
Get ready to get low, when Lowrider Day returns to the San Jose City Hall plaza on Saturday, Aug. 30.
The smooth celebration of San Jose’s lowrider culture — organized by the United Lowrider Council of San Jose and Councilmember Peter Ortiz’s office — runs from noon and 6 p.m. The custom cars — as well as lowrider bikes — will roll onto the plaza and on Santa Clara Street, which will be closed between Third and Seventh streets. You can check out the vehicles, watch a hop exhibition or enjoy live music courtesy of the Santa Cruz Latin Collective.
Community Service Officers look over cars on display during the annual San Jose Lowrider Day at City Hall on Sunday, Sept. 1, 2024, in San Jose, Calif. The event commemorates San Jose’s repeal of the decades-long ban on cruising in 2022. (Aric Crabb/Bay Area News Group)
Visitors look over cars on display during the annual San Jose Lowrider Day at City Hall on Sunday, Sept. 1, 2024, in San Jose, Calif. The event commemorates San Jose’s repeal of the decades-long ban on cruising in 2022. (Aric Crabb/Bay Area News Group)
Visitors look over cars on display during the annual San Jose Lowrider Day at City Hall on Sunday, Sept. 1, 2024, in San Jose, Calif. The event commemorates San Jose’s repeal of the decades-long ban on cruising in 2022. (Aric Crabb/Bay Area News Group)
Visitors look over automobiles on display during the annual San Jose Lowrider Day at City Hall on Sunday, Sept. 1, 2024, in San Jose, Calif. The event commemorates San Jose’s repeal of the decades-long ban on cruising in 2022. (Aric Crabb/Bay Area News Group)
Interior of a Chevy Impala on display during the annual San Jose Lowrider Day at City Hall on Sunday, Sept. 1, 2024, in San Jose, Calif. The event commemorates San Jose’s repeal of the decades-long ban on cruising in 2022. (Aric Crabb/Bay Area News Group)
Visitors look over cars on display during the annual San Jose Lowrider Day at City Hall on Sunday, Sept. 1, 2024, in San Jose, Calif. The event commemorates San Jose’s repeal of the decades-long ban on cruising in 2022. (Aric Crabb/Bay Area News Group)
A 1961 lowrider takes it low and slow during a Cinco de Mayo parade in San Jose, Calif., on Sunday, May 5, 2024. The parade began at San Jose City Hall and concluded at Plaza de Cesar Chavez. (Jose Carlos Fajardo/Bay Area News Group)
A 1941 Chevrolet lowrider with Un Dia de la vez lowrider club drives down East Santa Clara street during a Cinco de Mayo parade in San Jose, Calif., on Sunday, May 5, 2024. The parade began at San Jose City Hall and concluded at Plaza de Cesar Chavez. (Jose Carlos Fajardo/Bay Area News Group)
Attendees look at classic cars on display at the San Jose Lowrider Day event on Friday, Sept. 1, 2023, in downtown, San Jose, Calif. (Dai Sugano/Bay Area News Group)
Attendees dance to music at the San Jose Lowrider Day event on Friday, Sept. 1, 2023, in downtown, San Jose, Calif. (Dai Sugano/Bay Area News Group)
Ruben Trejo Sr., 65 of San Jose, loves old cars and being at the San Jose Lowrider Day event brings back “sweet old memories,” on Friday, Sept. 1, 2023, in downtown, San Jose, Calif. (Dai Sugano/Bay Area News Group)
SAN JOSE, CALIFORNIA – AUGUST 31: San Jose car clubs celebrate the city’s decades old ban on cruising being lifted at San Jose City Hall in San Jose, Calif., on Wednesday, Aug. 31, 2022. (Shae Hammond/Bay Area News Group)
San Jose City Councilman Raul Peralez holds up the last “No Cruising Zone” sign in front of San Jose City Hall on Aug. 31, 2022. (Sal Pizarro/Bay Area News Group)
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Community Service Officers look over cars on display during the annual San Jose Lowrider Day at City Hall on Sunday, Sept. 1, 2024, in San Jose, Calif. The event commemorates San Jose’s repeal of the decades-long ban on cruising in 2022. (Aric Crabb/Bay Area News Group)
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The annual festivities commemorate the day when the city lifted its decades-long ban on cruising. The restrictions were put in place back in 1986 because of legitimate concerns about public safety and traffic congestion, but as then-Councilmember Raul Peralez pointed out, the law was sometimes misused as a pretext to pull over Latino drivers or anyone in a tricked-out lowrider.
Peralez, working with the United Lowrider Council, made it his mission to get the ban lifted before he was termed out of office at the end of 2022. There was a huge lowrider gathering and celebration Aug. 31, 2022, when Peralez removed a “No Cruising Zone” sign from Santa Clara Street in front of City Hall.
