LANCASTER, Calif. — Cruising his ‘64 through the streets of Los Angeles County with his wife and kids is where you’ll find Adam Medellin at least once a week. For him, low-riding is a way of life.

Medellin has been president of the San Fernando Valley Car and Truck Club Council for 14 years, and his wife and kids also own lowriders.

“I’ve been low riding since I was 10 years old,” he said. “I joined my first car club when I was 13. I had joined a car club with no car, but I did have a lowrider bike.”

But in the 1980s, as Medellin fell in love with low-riding, cities across California banned the activity. Opponents maintained that cruising was associated with gangs and violence, but lowrider enthusiasts such as Medellin say it was a form of discrimination specifically against Chicanos and Latinos.

Medellin said law enforcement “could easily search your vehicle, search you and just be put into the system and that’s what we didn’t like.” 

Now, lowriders like Medellin are breathing a sigh of relief. In October, Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a bill that repeals cruising bans statewide.

“If they follow the rules, just like everyone else, they’re entitled to be out there on the road,” says LAPD Officer Rick Webb, who has been working with the lowrider community for more than a decade.

Webb first approached Medellin and his fellow lowriders at a park in the San Fernando Valley more than a decade ago. Webb’s father owned a chrome plating shop in Los Angeles, so he already had an appreciation for lowriders.

“My goal and hope was to get to know them, help other officers get to know them so they’d have the same appreciation I did. In turn, we developed a friendship partnership,” Webb said.

Medellin remembers when they first met.

“We just started kicking up conversation, and he asked me what I did,” he said. “And he started talking to me about his involvement with the community, and I said ‘Hey, we love to do things with the community.’”

Since then, the San Fernando Car and Truck Club Council has been partnering with LAPD’S Mission division to hold community events and fundraisers.

Medellin is hoping that with the passing of the “cruising is not a crime” bill, they’ll be able to collaborate with more law enforcement agencies.

“We have jobs, we’re educated,” he said. “It’s not your typical stereotype that was made out to be to be a lowrider. You know, we love doing community things, and this is something that he seen in us. And he was excited to start working with us, and we’ve been collaborating with him for over 15 years.”

For Medellin, repealing the cruising ban is the start of a new chapter for the low-riding community.

“This is really a big sense of relief for me, and it shows that our efforts as a group are not in vain,” he said.

It gives Medellin a sense of pride knowing future generations of lowriders will have the freedom to cruise and show off their rolling works of art.