South Bay Food Crawl - San Ysidro: McDonald's Massacre Memorial & the Southwestern College Higher Education Center

Although my post names include "South Bay Food Crawl", we only hit up about 5 places for actual food. The trivia hunter in me also threw in a few non-food places as well. Dennis actually joked about visiting a gun or pawn shop. Hey, if you're serious dude, there's a few of those down south that we can "check out"!

So, after the Wing, we headed south on Dairy Mart Road to San Ysidro Blvd.

For those of you that are native San Diegans, you may remember this tragedy, the San Ysidro McDonald's Massacre...

On July 18, 1984, a crazed gunman, James Huberty opened fire at a San Ysidro McDonald's. He killed 21 people (ranging in age from a baby to young kids, teens and older adults) before he was shot and killed by  S.W.A.T. I remember it was a hot day that summer. My brother and two of his friends had gone bike riding. When they came home, one of the moms said, "Don't go out! There's a crazy guy shooting up a McDonald's!". Sure enough, on the news were vivid helicopter images of the McDonald's (not the one near us on Palm) in San Ysidro. We were not allowed to go out and instead were glued to the TV watching the events unfold.

One of our good friends, Tatonka (who lived in San Ysidro at the time) recently told Bert that he WAS there at McD's that day biking with friends, except he left one hour before it happened. When he arrived home, his father asked him where he and his friends went and did a gruff headcount, saw that everyone was there and calmly went back into the house. I had chills when Bert told me about this.

After the McDonald's tragedy, Joan Kroc, the widow of Ray Kroc ordered the restaurant to be torn down. Nearly a decade later, in 1990, the Southwestern College Higher Education Center was built along with a memorial sculpture dedicated to those whose lives were lost in the tragedy. There are 21 hexagonal columns, each representing a victim. The varying heights represent the different ages of the victims.
It was really a sobering moment to stand here and reflect upon the terribly sad past of this venue. However, it was also uplifting to see a center of higher education especially in this impoverished community. I think it is a fitting tribute to have a satellite campus of SWC at the site.

The center even had some painted utility boxes!

I liked this one with the San Diego Trolley!

Articles about the San Ysidro McDonald's Massacre and it's aftermath:
"20 Years Later, San Ysidro Massacre Remembered" (North County Times)
"Teenage cook shot by Huberty in 1984 now a San Diego Police Officer" (S.D. Union Tribune)
"Slaughter at McDonald's changed how police operate" (CNN)

Articles about the Memorial:
After a Long Wair, Monument is Dedicated at Massacre Site (L.A. Times)
"Bouquets on memorial mark 25th anniversary of massacre" (Signon San Diego)

Wanting to end on a happier note, we headed up  the 5 for our last stop...