Signs Go Up Naming California Highway After Barack Obama

Signs have gone up naming a section of a Los Angeles-area freeway as the President Barack H. Obama Highway. The signs posted Thursday on State Route 134 apply to a stretch running from State Route 2 in Glendale, through the Eagle Rock section of Los Angeles to Interstate 210 in Pasadena. 

The former president attended Occidental College in Eagle Rock from 1979 to 1981 and lived in Pasadena. He then transferred to Columbia University in New York, where he graduated in 1983. 

The designation was authorized in 2017 when the Legislature signed off on a resolution introduced by state Sen. Anthony J. Portantino, a Democrat whose district includes the area.

Los Angeles will soon also name Rodeo Road, which is located in a largely African-American area of the city, after Obama. 

California, the state that launched the political careers of Ronald Reagan and Richard Nixon, is now one of the most Democratic states in the country. Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti is considered a potential candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2020. 

Obama won the Golden State handily in both 2008 and 2012.  

First published on December 21, 2018

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