Obama Boulevard officially opens in Los Angeles

LOS ANGELES -- A street in a historic black neighborhood in the US city of Los Angeles was officially renamed as Obama Boulevard on Saturday afternoon to attract more business resources and honor the former president.

The 3.5-mile (5.9 km) street has a former name Rodeo Road, which is located in southwest of the city and is home of Rancho Cienega Sports Complex, where Barack Obama held a campaign rally when he was running for president in 2007.

"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," Los Angeles's City Council President Herb Wesson said at a ceremony, who proposed the street name change in 2017.

"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," he added.

The street is in Wesson's council district. He promoted his district to be "president's row," a series of streets named after former presidents which includes Washington, Adams and Jefferson boulevards.

"As we drive through this city and we see past presidents on Adams, on Washington, on Jefferson, now we'll have one that was in our lifetime, who was a president for everybody: Barack Hussein Obama," Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti told hundreds of residents gathering at the ceremony, many of whom wear T-shirt printed with Obama's portrait.

Before the new street sign was unveiled, Wesson said that the Rancho Cienega Sports Complex would be renamed the Michelle and Barack Obama Sports Complex after a nearly 16-million US dollars expansion of the recreational area is complete.

The Los Angeles City Council unanimously approved the motion to rename Rodeo Road as Obama Boulevard in August 2018.