By Amy Bentley Southwest Riverside News Network
United Airlines pilot Jason Dahl of Denver, Colo. was among those killed on Flight 93 when it was hijacked by terrorists on September 11, 2001, but a little bit of Dahl lives on in Temecula.
In the new Arroyo at Paseo del Sol housing development, residents drive down a street called Dahl Drive that is named after the pilot.
The other streets in Arroyo are Bradshaw Avenue and Garcia Way, honoring Flight 93 flight attendant Sandra Bradshaw of Greensboro, N.C. and passenger Andrew Garcia of Portola Valley, CA.
United Flight 93, flying from Newark to San Francisco, crashed in a Pennsylvania field after passengers and crew members tried to seize control of the plane from the hijackers.
Everyone on board was killed – seven crew members, 33 passengers and the hijackers. It’s speculated the hijackers wanted to crash the plane into the White House or the Capitol.
Temecula and the developers of the new Paseo del Sol homes wanted to honor the 9/11 and Flight 93 victims, said Danielle Tocco, communications director for Standard Pacific Homes, one of the builders in the new tract.
In fact, all the streets in the new Paseo del Sol development — with houses built by Standard Pacific Homes, KB Home and Lennar — are named for victims of Flight 93 or other 9/11 victims.
The homes and memorial streets, built over the past two years, are located between Butterfield Stage Road and Meadows Parkway off Pauba Road.
In the Reserve at Paseo del Sol, built by Standard Pacific, Lyles Drive honors Flight 93 flight attendant CeeCee Lyles of Fort Meyers, Fla; Grandcolas Drive is named for passenger Lauren Grandcolas of San Rafael, Ca.; Glick Court is named after passenger Jeremy Glick of Hewlett. H.J.; Rivera Drive honors Waleska Martinez Rivera of New Jersey, NJ; Gronlund Court honors passenger Linda Gronlund of Warwick, N.J.; and other streets are named after Flight 93 passengers Richard Guadagno and Mark Rothenberg.
In the KB Home section, called Manzanita at Paseo del Sol, nine streets honor the victims. The street connecting several cul-de-sacs is Beamer Court, named for Todd Beamer of Cranbury, N.J., the heroic Flight 93 passenger who tried to foil the hijacking and reclaim the plane.
At least five other facilities have also been named for Beamer, including a post office in Cranbury and a park in Fresno, according to www.unitedheroes.com.
Ashley Murphy, a Standard Pacific sales representative at the Reserve, said prospective buyers aren’t generally aware of the significance of the street names but some do ask about their unusual names.
When told, “They get chills. They get goose bumps. They’re like, ‘That’s amazing.’ They have a story to tell their friends and family when they buy a home,” Murphy said.
Standard Pacific also partnered with the Gary Sinise Foundation and the Stephen Siller Tunnel to Towers Foundation to build a customized “smart home” for Marine Cpl. Juan Dominguez, who lost both legs and an arm in Afghanistan.
His home on Rivera Drive was turned over to the veteran and his wife during a ceremony at the new house on September 11 this year, on the 11th anniversary of the attacks.
Tocco said Dominguez looked at several neighborhoods in Temecula and loved the floor plan of his new home. It was a coincidence he chose a home named after a Flight 93 victim, she said. Once he learned that the streets in the Reserve honored 9/11 victims, “Things just kind of clicked. He was really excited,” Tocco said.
