Meet the Freeway Fighter organizers who will be joining us

Alex Contreras, Founder of the Happy City Coalition

Alex (they/them) was born and raised in Downey, California. After graduating from Long Beach State they worked in organizing and advocacy roles that took them across the country. From New Mexico to Virginia these roles provided Alex with insight on how so many communities faced similar challenges, such as car dependent infrastructure and the lack of housing. In 2020 Alex founded the Happy City Coalition that successfully stalled a planned freeway expansion which would threaten their neighborhood with extinction. The Happy City Coalition is now focused on building an anti-racist network of advocates across Downey and surrounding cities to answer a simple question; what makes our cities happy places to live in? To follow their work visit their website. In their spare time, Alex can be found biking to their local climbing gym and complaining about the high cost of free parking.

Amy Stelly, Co-founder of the Claiborne Avenue Alliance

Amy Stelly is an artist, designer, planner, and freeway fighter. Her scope of work includes building and open space design, historic restoration, downtown and neighborhood revitalization, environmental planning, municipal zoning, incentives, entitlements, site planning, streetscapes, and gardens. She is a co-founder of the Claiborne Avenue Alliance, a coalition of residents and property owners dedicated to the restoration of the Claiborne Corridor in the Treme and 7th Ward neighborhoods. Stelly also edits the opinions column for The Lens, a New Orleans-based nonprofit, nonpartisan public-interest newsroom.

Jay Arzu, PhD Candidate, University of Pennsylvania School of Design

Jay Arzu, a graduate of Marist College, began his Ph.D. in City and Regional Planning at the University of Pennsylvania Stuart Weitzman School of Design in Fall 2021. Jay is the Co-Founder of the Collective Form, a walkable urbanism and community engagement platform, where he handles Strategic Initiatives, Equity Management, and Community Engagement. 

From 2017 to 2018,  Mr. Arzu was a Transportation and Equity Research Fellow for the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation (CBCF). He was responsible for data collection and the production of policy analysis and research with specific attention to best practices to promote integrated and comprehensive policy impacts in black communities nationwide.  

In 2016, Jay was awarded a U.S. Fulbright Fellowship to attend the Scuola di Direzione Aziendale (SDA) Bocconi where he earned a Master of Public Administration (MPA). In 2015, Jay served as a Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute (CHCI) intern at the U.S House of Representatives.