Furious Seasons

June 01, 2009

Tough Choices For Seattle's Suicide Bridge

Longtime readers will remember my writing of Seattle's Aurora Bridge and how it's been the site of hundreds of suicides over the years. Over the years, more people and businesses have moved in around the bridge and encountered the ugly phenomenon that many of the jumpers don't jump over the Lake Washington Ship Canal, which the bridge spans, but jump onto dry land. With all the new residents and businesses--many of them high tech shops like Adobe and Google--loads of people are seeing the sorry results of a suicide and walking away traumatized. What's more, Seattle police and firefighters respond to potential jumpers on the bridge twice a week and they are at great risk as well. So people and workers in the neighborhood have been pushing for a suicide barrier of some type on the bridge. Not long ago, it looked as if the project would happen easily.

Today, Knute Berger (my former boss at Seattle Weekly) writes at Crosscut.com that the price of the barrier has exploded to $8 million (it was closer to $3 million two years ago) and that some historic preservation advocates are decrying the proposed barrier designs, which are admittedly butt ugly (but the bridge is no fashion model either). I have no idea how the government and neighbors are going to sort this all out, but the $8 million cost sure makes it hard to support the project in very tough budgetary times, as I'm quoted in Berger's piece. Anyway, it's an interesting piece.

In other news, it appears that officials in the Bay Area have settled upon a net as opposed to several proposed barriers for the Golden Gate Bridge. Some in Seattle would prefer seeing a net under the Aurora Bridge as well.

Posted by Philip Dawdy at June 1, 2009 01:21 PM

del.icio.us Digg it reddit

Comments

I'm kind of shocked by the callousness of the comments underneath the Golden Gate article.

Posted by: Francesca Allan at June 1, 2009 10:05 PM

That's great that he calls you the best mental health reporter in the country,(but) my question remains as to why isn't crosscut linking to your blog.(as a regular feature)

Maybe the editor will remember me asking this question a while back? (not Berger)

As far as the bridge barrier cost and wa state--we have a double-decker freeway posing a health risk to anyone driving on or going under due to earthquakes and bridge damage; we have bare minimum mental health services and housing, the budget allows rare paid advocate positions, the psych wards discharge to the streets of seattle and homeless shelters,(due to severe lack of housing) the list goes on and on.

What needs to happen is the infrastucture of the mental health system needs overhauling, and if the system truly worked for people (not just med pushing and 14 day holds at west seattle psych for medicaid clients as a base for "care")then we would not (ideally)need the bridge barrier....

It's impossible to address such an enormous expense on a bridge without addressing the reality of a defunct, overburdened, underfunded psych system in this state.

Posted by: Stephany at June 2, 2009 10:33 PM

"..the plan was approved this week by the Seattle Landmarks Preservation Board.

The board voted 6-5 on Wednesday to approve the $8 million state project, which is fully funded.

At least 230 people have jumped from the historic bridge, some 167 feet above Lake Union, since it opened in 1932, a government background report says.

The state Department of Transportation will install either steel mesh or vertical bars, rising 8 feet, 9 inches from the sidewalks."

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2009302871_dige05m.html

Posted by: Stephany at June 5, 2009 07:57 PM