Where the streets have cool names: Wu-Tang Clan and Obama honored from NY to LA

They are very different honorees and they were immortalized in places thousands of miles apart, on opposite coasts, but the exuberant celebrations and the infectious sense of occasion were shared.

While part of the New York City borough of Staten Island was named Wu-Tang Clan District this weekend, after the hardcore hip-hop group some of whose members hail from the area, a street in Los Angeles was named Obama Boulevard, after a certain president of the United States.

Hundreds of fans braved steady rain on the east coast to mark the occasion on Saturday when the streets of the Park Hill section of Staten Island were dubbed Wu-Tang Clan District.

“This is a great day where we have an opportunity to honor our own hometown heroes, the young men who put Staten Island on the map internationally. They overcame all types of challenges, to not only become rap artists and hip-hop artists but to inspire and challenge the music world,” said local council woman Debi Rose.

Rose tweeted: “Aaand it’s official. The Wu-Tang Clan District is a celebration of their inspiration to the world – and a celebration of their home, Shaolin.”

As Clan members gathered on stage at the event to thank supporters, Cappadonna said: “The real value is in the love, to help you see all things clearly.”

Staten Island artist Gano Grills painted a street mural to honor the musicians.

“I never saw this day coming,” said the Clan’s Ghostface Killah, with footage of his speech popping up on Instagram. “I knew we were some ill MCs, but I didn’t know that it’d take it this far.”

On the other side of the country, Rodeo Road in Los Angeles suddenly became Barack Obama Boulevard on Saturday, honoring America’s first black president even if he hails originally from Hawaii and went to college in New York and Cambridge, Massachusetts (Columbia University and Harvard Law School).

“A lot of people will say it’s just another street, but for me, being 15 years old, a black child looking up and seeing the name of the first black president in my own ’hood – that gives me hope,” Thandiwe Abdullah, a co-founder of the Black Lives Matter Youth Vanguard, told the LA Times.

The dedication ceremony brought thousands to the intersection with Martin Luther King Jr Boulevard, in one of LA’s’ historic black neighborhoods.