President Barack Obama Boulevard, or commonly Obama Boulevard, is a major thoroughfare in the Baldwin Hills/Crenshaw area of the city of Los Angeles. It stretches from

Baldwin Hills Baldwin Hills may refer to: Places * Baldwin Hills (mountain range), Los Angeles County, California, U.S. * Baldwin Hills, Los Angeles, a neighborhood in South Los Angeles, California, U.S. * Baldwin Village, Los Angeles, a neighborhood in South Lo ...

(past

Baldwin Village Baldwin Village is a commercial enclave in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It is located in the west of downtown Toronto, within the Grange Park (neighbourhood), Grange Park neighbourhood, one block north of Dundas Street, Dundas Street West, between ...

and

Crenshaw Crenshaw may refer to: Places in the United States *Crenshaw, Los Angeles **Crenshaw High School *Crenshaw County, Alabama *Crenshaw, Mississippi *Crenshaw, Pennsylvania Transportation *Crenshaw Boulevard *Crenshaw station (C Line, Los Angeles Met ...

) to

Leimert Park Leimert Park (; ) is a neighborhood in the South Los Angeles region of Los Angeles, California. Developed in the 1920s as a mainly residential community, it features Spanish Colonial Revival homes and tree-lined streets. The Life Magazine/Lei ...

History

Previously called Rodeo Road (pronounced "

rodeo Rodeo () is a competitive equestrian sport that arose out of the working practices of cattle herding in Spain and Mexico, expanding throughout the Americas and to other nations. It was originally based on the skills required of the working va ...

" (RO-dee-oh) and not to be confused with Rodeo Drive (ro-DAY-oh) in Beverly Hills), it was renamed President Barack Obama Boulevard on May 4, 2019. The '' Los Angeles Times'' characterized the renaming as important for local residents because it honored the first African American President and was a symbol of resistance to the Donald Trump presidency. The city already has streets named after U.S. presidents, such as

George Washington George Washington (February 22, 1732, 1799) was an American military officer, statesman, and Founding Father who served as the first president of the United States from 1789 to 1797. Appointed by the Continental Congress as commander of th ...

, John Adams, Abraham Lincoln and Thomas Jefferson, as well as a street named for Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.—the former "

Santa Barbara Avenue Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard (also known as MLK Blvd or simply King Blvd; originally Santa Barbara Avenue) is an east-west thoroughfare in Los Angeles, California. It stretches from Obama Boulevard in Baldwin Hills/Crenshaw to South Alam ...

", thus renamed, and commonly known since the early 1980s as "King Boulevard". Then-

Senator A senate is a deliberative assembly, often the upper house or chamber of a bicameral legislature. The name comes from the ancient Roman Senate (Latin: ''Senatus''), so-called as an assembly of the senior (Latin: ''senex'' meaning "the el ...

Obama held a campaign rally at Rancho Cienega Park when running for his first term as president.

Commercial

The former Rodeo Road's intersection with La Brea Avenue has been a commercial nexus since the mid-20th century, with the Baldwin Hills Shopping Center (not to be confused with the larger Baldwin Hills Crenshaw Plaza indoor mall) opening in 1954 with anchors

Safeway Safeway is an American supermarket chain founded by Marion Barton Skaggs in April 1915 in American Falls, Idaho. The chain provides grocery items, food and general merchandise and features a variety of specialty departments, such as bakery, d ...

, Clark's Drug Store (later became Sav-On Drugs in 1995) and

J. J. Newberry J. J. Newberry's was an American five and dime store chain in the 20th century. It was founded in Stroudsburg, Pennsylvania, United States, in 1911 by John Josiah Newberry (1877–1954). J. J. Newberry learned the variety store business by working ...

; today the

anchor tenant In retail, an "anchor tenant", sometimes called an "anchor store", "draw tenant", or "key tenant", is a considerably larger tenant in a shopping mall, often a department store or retail chain. They are typically located at the ends of malls. Wit ...

s are Ralphs supermarket and CVS Pharmacy. The La Cienega–Rodeo Shopping Center had the

Fedco Federal Employees' Distributing Company, known as Fedco, was a membership department store chain that operated in Southern California from 1948 to 1999. History Beginning The chain was unusual in that it was a nonprofit consumers' cooperative. ...

warehouse club as an anchor, and is now anchored by

Target Target may refer to: Physical items * Shooting target, used in marksmanship training and various shooting sports ** Bullseye (target), the goal one for which one aims in many of these sports ** Aiming point, in field artillery, fi ...

. From the intersection of Obama and

Crenshaw Boulevard Crenshaw Boulevard is a north-south thoroughfare in Los Angeles, California, that runs through Crenshaw and other neighborhoods along a 23-mile (37.76 km) route in the west-central part of the city. The street extends between Wilshire Boulevar ...

s, a commercial strip stretches down Crenshaw Boulevard to the Baldwin Hills Crenshaw Plaza.

References

{{portal bar, Los Angeles, California, United States Streets in Los Angeles African-American history in Los Angeles Baldwin Hills, Los Angeles Crenshaw, Los Angeles Barack Obama