Raising cash for Obama freeway
One year after the Legislature passed a resolution to rename a portion of a Southern California highway after President Obama, community leaders are raising money to make it official.
In September 2017, state Sen. Anthony Portantino (D-La Cañada Flintridge) announced that the 134 Freeway between the 2 Freeway and the 210 Freeway interchange would be named the President Barack H. Obama Highway.
But for a year, nothing has changed, leading some to wonder whether that part of the freeway was actually renamed.
Now the Pasadena Community Foundation and Portantino are hosting a fundraising event on Sept. 23 to raise money to install signs officially labeling the highway after the 44th president.
A spokesperson for Portantino’s office did not answer questions about the fundraiser or the costs, but the cost of signs for naming other stretches of freeway in honor of public figures has ranged from $3,000 to $7,000.
A website for the foundation says people can purchase a single $30 ticket to the event or a sponsorship for between $100 and $300, which includes two tickets. Community members who cannot attend can also donate on the website.
Obama began his university career as an undergraduate student at Occidental College in 1979 before transferring to Columbia University in 1981. “President Obama used this portion of California’s freeway system to travel from his college home in Pasadena to Occidental College,” said a 2017 statement announcing the resolution’s passage. “President Obama ... has attributed his time there as the beginning of his political activism. It is the place where he gave his first political speech.”
The city of Pasadena has also placed a plaque in front of the home where Obama lived when he was a student. California is the first state in the nation to name a freeway for the former president, according to Portantino’s statement. Other states have followed — in April, for example, a proposal to rename a Denver-area road as the Barack Obama Highway passed in the Colorado House of Representatives.
Most recently, the Los Angeles City Council voted to change Rodeo Road to Obama Boulevard.
“We’re thrilled that Angelenos and visitors will forever be reminded of the legacy of President @BarackObama when traveling across L.A.,” Mayor Eric Garcetti said in the tweet announcing the news on Aug. 28.
Obama held a campaign rally at Rancho Cienega Park on Rodeo Road when he ran for president, according to the initial proposal for the road name change by Council President Herb Wesson.