The SFGate is running a seven-part series on the Golden Gate Bridge, the world's No. 1 magnet for suicides. The iconic gateway has seen approximately 1,218 since it was built, lacing the fog-cloaked allure that has drawn people's destinies from all over the world for decades with a haunting urban symbolism stirring ever-darker the mythos of this western edge. After years of debate over whether to install a barrier fence, possibly using one of these designs (cont.), the protective measure moves closer to imminent now, since funding for a feasibility study was recently approved, and official support gains momentum.
Part 1: The Allure & 2: Family Grief
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A few months ago, Landscape Architect Lawrence Halprin expressed his concerns regarding the barrier fence:
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2005/08/12/EDG9OE4TBQ1.DTL
By the way...where are thy going with all this?
Will less people committ suicide?
Are we going to continue and destoy iconic architecture and Landscape Architecture in America to 'protect ourselves' from suicide, the homeless, skateboards, terror...?
Could you imagine the French 'suicide proofing' the Eiffel tower....
i agree, another attempt to cure the headache by cutting off the head. what about putting that money and time into greater outreach, mental health clinics, etc., or something that actually gets at the roots of the problem, rather than just the topographic 'fortress-it-up' solution. people aren't committing suicide off the golden gate cause its more fun, maybe more efficient, but won't this be just another way of displacing those people next, as surely their desire to end it won't quit 'cause the GG is no longer an option. we are becoming a nation that only knows aid in the form of counter-terrorism, guns, and debt relief. very frightening.
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