President Obama May Get an Illinois Highway Named After Him
By Marissa G. Muller. Photo by: Getty Images.
President Obama may have only moved out of the White House a month ago, but there are many who already miss him. Two representatives for the state of Illinois apparently fall into that category—they both agree that the recently retired POTUS deserves his own highway in the Prairie State, and they've drafted legislation supporting their beliefs.
The only question is: which stretch of Illinois highway will it be? Currently, the two reps each have their own idea of which road deserves Obama's name. As reported by the Chicago Sun Times, state Rep. Robert Martwick hopes to christen "the entirety of Interstate 294 of the Dwight D. Eisenhower System of Interstate and Defense Highways as the "'President Barack Obama Tollway,'" according to state legislative records. This was announced January 26, and was co-sponsored by Sate representatives Marcus C. Evans, Jr. and Jehan Gordon-Booth.
Also on January 26, state Rep. La Shawn Ford said that he is drafting legislation to rename Illinois' Interstate 55 as the "Barack Obama Expressway." In a statement from Ford's office obtained by the Sun Times, the representative said "many highways and byways" will be named after the president, "so it is only right that Illinois be at the forefront of the many actions that will rename streets and highways for President Obama."
President Obama has a long history with the state. Before becoming POTUS, he served as an Illinois state senator, and, later, as a U.S. senator representing Illinois. He was also a community organizer in Chicago back in the 1980s, and he worked as a law professor at the University of Chicago Law School for over 10 years. And when daughter Sasha graduates high school next year, Barack and Michelle Obama plan to move back to Chicago, where they will be breaking in the new headquarters for the Obama Foundation. And considering the never-ending vacation the former POTUS and FLOTUS have been enjoying for the past several weeks, we won't be surprised if we catch them road tripping along the Obama Tollway or the Obama Expressway sometime in the near future.
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This story originally appeared on Architectural Digest.
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