Kobe Bryant Boulevard is a proposed renaming of a stretch of

Figueroa Street Figueroa Street is a major north-south street in Los Angeles County, California, spanning from the Los Angeles neighborhood of Wilmington north to Eagle Rock. A short, unconnected continuation of Figueroa Street runs just south of Marengo Driv ...

by former

President of the Los Angeles City Council The President of the Los Angeles City Council is the presiding officer of the Los Angeles City Council. The president presides over meetings of the council and assignments to City Council committees and handles parliamentary duties like ruling mot ...

Herb Wesson Herman J. "Herb" Wesson Jr. (born November 11, 1951) is an American politician who served as a City council, councilmember representing the Los Angeles City Council District 10, 10th District for three terms between July 1, 2005 and December 14, ...

and council member

Curren Price Curren De Mille Price, Jr. (born December 16, 1950, in Los Angeles, California) is an American politician of the Democratic Party, currently serving as a Los Angeles city council member for District 9. Price was a California State Senator, repre ...

on August 24, 2020. It would be renamed in honor of professional

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appr ...

player

Kobe Bryant Kobe Bean Bryant ( ; August 23, 1978 – January 26, 2020) was an American professional basketball player. A shooting guard, he spent his entire 20-year career with the Los Angeles Lakers in the National Basketball Association (NBA). Widely r ...

, who along with his daughter Gianna and seven others were killed in a

helicopter crash A helicopter is a type of rotorcraft in which lift and thrust are supplied by horizontally spinning rotors. This allows the helicopter to take off and land vertically, to hover, and to fly forward, backward and laterally. These attributes ...

on January 26, 2020. The renamed street would span from Olympic Boulevard to Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard. It would also include the

Crypto.com Arena Crypto.com Arena is a multi-purpose indoor arena in Downtown Los Angeles. Adjacent to the L.A. Live development, it is located next to the Los Angeles Convention Center complex along Figueroa Street. The arena opened on October 17, 1999; it w ...

, which is home to the

Los Angeles Lakers The Los Angeles Lakers are an American professional basketball team based in Los Angeles. The Lakers compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the league's Western Conference Pacific Division. The Lakers play their ...

who Bryant played with throughout his entire 20-year career and is dubbed the "House that Kobe built". On October 21, 2020, the vote to consider the proposal was delayed by the council, and a new date has yet to be stated .

History

On August 24, 2020,

Kobe Bryant Day Kobe Bryant Day (also called Mamba Day) is a day that is celebrated on August 24 in Los Angeles and Orange County commemorating the life of basketball player Kobe Bryant. The date was chosen as the holiday because of Bryant's numbers on his jerse ...

, then- council member

announced that the stretch of Figueroa Street, between Olympic and Martin Luther King Jr., would be renamed to Kobe Bryant Boulevard on

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. Wesson said that Bryant's "legacy asbigger than basketball" and that the street would be a reminder that "there is no obstacle too big and that with the #Mambamentality, anything is possible." On October 15, the Figueroa Corridor Bid stated that they would vote to reject the bill, with their founder Darryl Holzer stating that he was "disappointed that

and Herb Wesson didn’t discuss this proposal with any oil the leaders of the Figueroa Corridor Bid." On October 21, 2020, the

Los Angeles City Council The Los Angeles City Council is the legislative body of the Los Angeles, City of Los Angeles in California. The council is composed of 15 members elected from single-member districts for four-year terms. The President of the Los Angeles City Counc ...

's Public Works and Gang Reduction Committee considered moving forward with a vote to send it for consideration, but was delayed due to an extended meeting of the council. , the committee has not given a new date for the vote with Councilmember Price stating that the

COVID-19 pandemic in Los Angeles Ten of the first twenty confirmed COVID-19 cases in the United States occurred in California, the first of which was confirmed on January 26, 2020. All of the early confirmed cases were persons who had recently travelled to China, as testing wa ...

had stalled the votes.

Route

The renamed section would run down by the campus of the

University of Southern California The University of Southern California (USC, SC, or Southern Cal) is a Private university, private research university in Los Angeles, California, United States. Founded in 1880 by Robert M. Widney, it is the oldest private research university in C ...

(USC) and past

L.A. Live L.A. Live is an entertainment complex in the South Park District of Downtown Los Angeles, California. It is adjacent to the Crypto.com Arena and Los Angeles Convention Center. L.A. Live was developed by Anschutz Entertainment Group (AEG), Wach ...

, putting the Crypto.com Arena at 1111 Kobe Bryant Boulevard. It would also include the

Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum The Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum (also known as the L.A. Coliseum) is a multi-purpose stadium in the Exposition Park neighborhood of Los Angeles, California. Conceived as a hallmark of civic pride, the Coliseum was commissioned in 1921 as a mem ...

and

Galen Center The Galen Center is a multipurpose indoor arena and athletic facility owned and operated by the University of Southern California. Located at the southeast corner of Jefferson Boulevard and Figueroa Street in the Exposition Park (Los Angeles), Exp ...

. The street would intersect with Chick Hearn Court, a section of 11th Street renamed for Lakers announcer

Chick Hearn Francis Dayle "Chick" Hearn (November 27, 1916 – August 5, 2002) was an American sportscaster who was the play-by-play announcer for the Los Angeles Lakers of the National Basketball Association for 41 years. Hearn is remembered for his rapid f ...

in 2002.

Reactions

The reaction towards the announcement was mostly positive. Several USC students reacted positively to the announcement on Twitter. Many also liked how it would intersect Chick Hearn Court and MLK Boulevard. Some have criticized the move to rename because it would erase some of the street's history with it, as it would be renaming a part of

José Figueroa José Figueroa (1792 – 29 September 1835), was a General and the Mexican Governor of Alta California from 1833 to 1835. He wrote the first book to be published in California. Background and governorship Figueroa was a Mestizo of Spanish a ...

's history as a governor of Alta California.

References

{{reflist Streets in Los Angeles Kobe Bryant Venues of the 2028 Summer Olympics Proposed roads in the United States