Martin Feinberg, Realtor, notes that last Saturday May 4, the city of Los Angeles renamed a section of a road as Obama Boulevard in honor of the 44th president of the United States. The name change happened during a 5 p.m. ceremony that followed a daylong festival celebrating the historic occasion. Obama Boulevard replaced 3 1/2 miles of what used to be Rodeo Road between Mid-City and Culver City. The stretch of road intersects with Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard and further establishes a “presidential row” that includes Washington, Adams and Jefferson boulevards within the Culver City Real Estate area.
South L.A. Rev. Russell Thornhill said of the occasion, “I get to live in a lifetime where we elected our first black president. I get to share that with my mother, who’s 92 years old who voted and actually went to the inauguration. I called her before I came here to let her know what I was doing, and she was just in tears because she was seeing in her lifetime… the naming of a street of the first black president in this community.”
The decision to rename that section of the road to Obama Boulevard came last August, when the Los Angeles City Council unanimously voted for the renaming.
“With this change, we are publicly documenting what Obama’s legacy as our nation’s first black President means to our city and our South Los Angeles community,” City Council President Herb Wesson said in a statement. “For every child who will drive down this street and see the President’s name, this will serve as a physical reminder that no goal is out of reach and that no dream is too big.” Local listing agent Martin Feinberg was interested to learn that Wesson is also pushing to rename a local sports complex as Barack and Michelle Obama Park.
A section of the 134 Freeway was designated as the President Barack H. Obama Highwayjust last year.
