Rodeo Road will become Barack Obama Boulevard Saturday with public celebration

Rodeo Road will officially be renamed Saturday after the 44th U.S. president, giving Los Angeles a Barack Obama Boulevard.

The roughly four-mile street cuts through Leimert Park and Baldwin Hills, where Obama campaigned prior to the 2008 election.

The street’s renaming will formally establish Los Angeles’s “President’s Row,” a collection of east-west-running streets that includes Washington, Adams, and Jefferson boulevards (Lincoln Boulevard, rather appropriately, runs north-south), according to Los Angeles City Councilmember Herb Wesson,

It’s technically the second roadway in Los Angeles named after the former president, who lived in the Los Angeles area briefly while enrolled at Occidental College. A stretch of the 134 freeway close to the college was formally renamed after Obama late last year.

The City Council voted on the latest name switch in August, but new street signs won’t go up until this weekend. A celebration of the event featuring live music from Doug E. Fresh, Sheila E, Yo Yo, and other artists, will begin Saturday at noon, extending until 6 p.m. It’s set to take place at the intersection of Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard

A legion of elected officials will be in attendance, including Mayor Eric Garcetti and Wesson, who proposed renaming the street in Obama’s honor (Obama himself is not expected to be there).

The festivities will be free, but tickets are required.