Golden Gate bridge to follow Toronto’s example

October 14, 2008 D. H. McKee

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This is long overdue. I’ve walked the Golden Gate bridge and it’s a sublime and fantastic architectural masterpiece, overwhelming in its sheer scope. It’s no wonder suicides are drawn to this nexus like flies to the bug zapper. Sorry, tried to come up with a better simile, but failed.
What is most astounding, however, is the interesting statistic that placed Toronto’s Bloor St. Viaduct as North America’s #2 place to commit suicide. And that we’ve stopped them completely by erecting a barrier there. Fascinating stuff:

The bridge district should follow the example of Toronto, which held a design competition in an effort to arrive at a satisfactory barrier for the Bloor Street Viaduct (formerly the No. 2 suicide magnet in North America). Architect Derick Revington’s award-winning design (the $6 million “luminous veil” barrier) has been described as “lifesaving art.” It was completed in 2003 and has entirely halted suicides at that location.

Bridge directors vote for net to deter suicides

Golden Gate Bridge directors voted decisively Friday to try to stop people from jumping to their deaths from the landmark bridge by hanging nets along the sides of the span.
The Board of Directors voted 14-to-1 to install the stainless-steel net system, which would be placed 20 feet below the deck, and would collapse around anyone who jumped into it, making it difficult, if not impossible, for anyone to leap to their death. The lone “no” vote came from Director James Eddie of Mendocino County, who said his constituents did not consider a barrier necessary.

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As a guy who occasionally curates art shows and wrangles artists together, I often have to edit and post artist bios, profile pictures, and artwork images. This can be a problem, since many artists and writers aren’t used to selling themselves. Artists rarely know how to present their art for display in a brochure, and writers aren’t used to writing about themselves.

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Like blogs of old, this one is a personal document of the comings and goings of me. Articles I’ve written, links I’ve posted, videos I liked, etc. Here, a first-person perspective is the way to go, at least for now. So, this is my site. I’m D. H. McKee, a sometimes artist, sometimes writer. Mostly just a guy on the internet.