La Puerta de Esperanza — the Door of Hope — seems permanently locked. The U.S. side of Friendship Park is still off-limits. Cross-border families can’t tearfully touch each other.
But two years after being closed to vehicle traffic, the road to ocean-view Border Field State Park is open.
Still, the site of emotional family reunions and Attorney General Jeff Sessions’ 2018 announcement of President Trump’s family separation policy is now a No Man’s Land.
Only Border Patrol cars are allowed in the strip of land between the inner and secondary border fences. An officer shouts “Read the signs!” at people taking pictures close to the inner bollards.
Times of San Diego visited the park Saturday afternoon, encountering a vacationing Australian family (unaware of the vehicle access debut) and a 78-year-old Imperial Beach native who recalled the area in the 1950s.
“There was a barbed wire fence,” said Larry King, the longtime South Bay resident. “It was mashed out by cars going over it — it’s quicker to go to work this way then go to the border crossing.”
King, a retired gardener and General Dynamics machinist, ate lunch on the bluff overlooking the ocean.
“I try to come every day, for exercise,” said King, who rides a yellow trail bike he bought for $50 from a friend — the son of a late Tijuana bike-shop owner.
On Saturday, nobody was staffing the office where the 1 1/2-mile access road begins. We paid a $5 day-use fee by adding cash to an envelope and dropping it into a metal kiosk slot. Then took our time, at 15 mph, driving down a snaking narrow road.
It was mainly quiet. A family ate at one of a dozen concrete picnic tables. Others hiked down a dirt path to the deep-sand beach. Riders on horses paid a visit.
But on the Mexican side of the border — the Playas de Tijuana — hundreds enjoyed mariachi music. Some visited Friendship Garden, where a sign was inaugurated on the 54th anniversary of Friendship Park — dedicated by First Lady Pat Nixon.
Border Field State Park — accessed via Dairy Mart and Monument roads — is open to hiking, biking and equestrian activity. (See hours here.) Vehicles are allowed 9:30 a.m. to 7 p.m. Saturdays and Sundays only.
On Friendship Park’s 50th anniversary, in 2021, San Diego Mayor Todd Gloria and other elected officials gathered to demand that the area be opened after being shut since March 2020 at the dawn of the pandemic.
Gloria told a crowd: “Standing here today, there is no indication of when the border restrictions will be lifted and when the visiting hours will resume. As mayor of San Diego, I want to say that that is wrong, and the federal government must act to fix it.”
It hasn’t. Officials have declined comment.
On a Sunday in April 2017, six families got to reach across the international divide and embrace their loved ones for three minutes.
The event, called “Opening the Door of Hope,” was sponsored by Border Angels. It saw Border Patrol agents unlock and roll back a heavy gate — the fifth time in history.
In late July, Daniel Watman, program director of the Friends of International Friendship Park, told Border Report: “While the new 30-foot border walls are a desecration of this historic location, it is important for people in the United States to demonstrate their continuing solidarity with our friends in Mexico.”
One U.S. friend might be cyclist Larry King.
He isn’t thrilled by the 30-foot barrier, with barbed wire, extending out to sea.
“I’m looking forward to the time there won’t be any borders. God’s kingdom,” he said. “That’s going to solve all of our problems. Man can’t do it. Beyond their hope.”
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by PostX News and is published from a syndicated feed.)
