LA neighborhood behind effort for Obama Boulevard
Rodeo Road (not Drive) is targeted
LOS ANGELES — Even though it runs through the heart of LA’s Baldwin Hills/Crenshaw neighborhood, most Angelenos would be hard-pressed to locate Rodeo Road on a map.
In fact, they’d probably point to its ritzy doppelganger — Beverly Hills’ Rodeo Drive — instead. That may change soon, however. Residents here are cheering a proposal to rename the asphalt thoroughfare in honor of former President Barack Obama, who visited when he was a U.S. senator.
The news that L.A.’s Rodeo Road may be renamed Obama Boulevard was received positively by residents of the surrounding Crenshaw district.
“I’m so happy, that would be wonderful,” said Robbi Work, 60.
A retired former prosecutor, Work was even wearing a shirt emblazoned with the former president’s face when she learned of the proposal to rename the road Obama Boulevard.
“They were wonderful, he and Michelle,” Work said.
The street, a 3½-mile residential strip in a predominantly African-American community, is flanked on both sides by squat one- and two-story houses and gated communities. The road is also home to Dorsey High School, Baldwin Hills Elementary School and Rancho Cienega Sports Center and Park — where Obama held a campaign rally when he was running for president.
“At one point, Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard used to be called Santa Barbara Avenue,” said Admee Aguierre, 33, a locker room attendant at the sports center who was present for the rally. “So that will be kind of cool, because Martin Luther King ends right here where the park is and then to have Rodeo called Obama, it’s like we have these streets being named after our own.”
Los Angeles City Council President Herb Wesson last month proposed renaming the street. There are several other streets named after presidents in the area, including Washington, Jefferson and Adams.
The street would not be the first in the state to be named after the nation’s first black president. In May, a plan to rename a stretch of the 134 Freeway after Obama moved forward with approval from the state Senate. The freeway is near Occidental College, which Obama attended from 1979 to 1981. Seaside, in Monterey County, named a street after Obama several years ago.
Changing the name of a major street is not without controversy. In 2003, there was a proposal to rename Crenshaw Boulevard after Tom Bradley, L.A.’s first black mayor.
Bradley, the grandson of a slave, forged political coalitions and presided over the construction of the downtown skyline, the start of the subway system and the rise of Los Angeles as a center for international trade. He died in 1998.
Still, some residents were uneasy about changing the name of a street that was so associated with black life in Los Angeles. The proposal eventually died.
There was less controversy, but still some opposition, when city and county officials renamed Brooklyn Avenue in East Los Angeles and Boyle Heights after famed labor leader Cesar E. Chavez.
Even the youngest residents of the southwest L.A. neighborhood were receptive to Wesson’s idea.
“Obama! I like that,” said 8-year-old Kory Gable. “Then there will be only one Rodeo which is Rodeo” Drive.
“I think that’s a great idea,” agreed Golden Wilson, 10. “Because it teaches you the presidents and it can teach you the streets and it’ll be easier.”
“What about Donald Trump Road?” Kory asked.
“No one wants a Donald Trump Road,” Golden responded. “Jeez.”
Though residents were open to having a street named after Obama, they did ask why he couldn’t be given a more significant thoroughfare.
“Changing the name here won’t change anything because it’s already a black neighborhood,” agreed Shawn Rahman, a cashier at a smoke shop. “Why not take it to Beverly Hills? Why not change Rodeo Drive to Obama Drive? Because it’s a white neighborhood? You’re changing the street, you’re spending the money, might as well change it there.”