Suicide Hill

Inspired by a recent post by Darlene of My Burning Kitchen, we made our weekly trek down South, as in the area known as Otay Mesa, Nestor and the border of Imperial Beach. Bert and I both grew up in Otay Mesa. To kill time between our eventual destination (Oasis Ice Cream Parlor), we decided to visit a famous South Bay landmark, The Wing. 

But...before doing so, we headed east on Palm Avenue near the trolley tracks.  This is the intersection of Palm and Hollister.  San Diego movie buffs will recognize the opposite side of this intersection in a snippet from the movie, "Little Nikita" (1988) starring the late River Phoenix and Sidney Poitier (remember the 80's when the Russkies were always the bad guys? Except in "Back to the Future" when it was the Libyans"?!). The brief scene showed the "Palm Liquor" store as the trolley headed south to Tijuana.  This intersection was also the same site where my dad took all of us to see the runner with the Olympic Torch during th 1984 Summer Olympics.

Here's the imdb plot summary:

"Roy Parmenter is an FBI agent in San Diego; 20 years ago his partner was killed by a Soviet spy, nicknamed Scuba, still at large. Scuba is now trying to extort the Soviets; to prove he's serious, he's killing their agents one by one, including "sleepers," agents under deep cover awaiting orders. Roy interviews a high school lad, Jeff Grant, an applicant to the Air Force Academy. In a routine background check, Roy discovers that Jeff's parents are sleepers. He must see if Jeff is also a spy, confront the parents yet protect them, and catch his nemesis. Meanwhile, the Soviets have sent their own spy-catcher, the loner Karpov, to reel in Scuba. Alliances shift; it's cat and mouse."
Here's more info about the other sites in San Diego shown in "Little Nikita":

The Torrey Pines coastline
The Performing Arts Theatre
The Spreckels Theatre
G Street Pier near San Diego Bay
On board the Marietta, one of the boats used for the San Diego Harbor Excursion Line
Sea World
and the San Ysidro-Tijuana Border Crossing.

One of the film's climactic sequences is aboard the San Diego trolley which had a hostage exchange between the FBI and KGB.

Makes me want to rent this movie and watch it again!

Once you go past the trolley tracks, you head up this hill, once known as Suicide Hill. I'm not talking about the main road, but the higher one on the right...

Back in the 70's, there was only one way to get to IB from Otay Mesa...head west on Palm Avenue where it narrowed down into a 2 lane road. You had to make a left up a hill near the water tower. The grade is so steep that you couldn't see in front of you. When our family moved down south in 1977, my best friend N would tell me about how much fun it was going down on Suicide Hill. By the time we arrived in Otay Mesa, Suicide Hill was no more. It was closed off and a wider road for Palm Avenue was made. A small housing development was also built at the foot of Suicide Hill. Bert also remembers Suicide Hill. His family would take that road every Sunday on their way to St. Charles Catholic Parish. It's hard for me to believe that this used to be the only road to connect Otay Mesa with IB! Now you can also take Coronado Street (from Del Sol) which runs parallel to Palm.

I tried googling "Suicide Hill" along with San Diego, Nestor, Otay Mesa, South Bay and only came up with articles about suicides but not the hill itself.

Here's a wider shot of the old Suicide Hill...the suburbs to the left is Palm Pacifica housing development. Many of the streets have Hawaiian street names, (a few Filipino names as well). Those houses were built in the mid 80's.

Aaah, nostalgia...

On to the Wing!