In the News II

Quote: SOOPOO

Are you saying that the reason people kill themselves is because the Golden Gate Bridge doesn’t have suicide prevention nets? People will kill themselves if for whatever reason they want to kill themselves. If the nets were free, I’d be all for them. I just think that the $$$$$$$$$ spent on them could be better used, or not collected in the first place. I’ll let you decide. Spend the money on
1. Shelters for the homeless
2. COVID research
3. Wind turbines
4. AEDs for public gathering spots.
5. Contract extension for Brock Purdy
6. More free needles for drug addicts

My point is of course that every public expenditure should be analyzed on a cost/benefit concept. To me the ratio on this expenditure FAR exceeds 1.

An easy analogy is ‘cancer research’. No one thinks cancer research is a bad concept. But if someone said…. We presently spend $50 billion a year on it, but we will now be spending $2 trillion a year, since it will save lives……

Why DON’T you want to spend that much? It will certainly save some lives?

I am sure those are all great causes, which need funding. However, not a single one is relevant to the Golden Gate district's fund. That is not how special districts work.

That is like the people who say the City needs to repair potholes, but the Fire District is spending millions on education. That money would never be able to repair potholes.

Such districts exist for very specific usages in a very limited way, and can't go beyond that. Golden Gate Brdige just gets a lot of toll money due to the popularity and location, so they have the money for involved projects.

Quote: GenoDRPh

What would you have done to reduce suicide attempts off the Golden Gate?

Nothing. Answering for myself, not SOOPOO.

If you build it, they will come...and jump...


The Bridge

Answering Geno….. I know A LOT about public health stuff. I worked at my county’s public hospital. It is the safety net for our 1,000,000+ patient area. I can assure you that $200+ million could be better spent on their clinics, outreach programs, vaccination initiatives, etc….
I’m not saying that suicide prevention initiatives are bad. I’m saying the particular one being discussed is not worth $200 million.

As far as I think Gandlers point about the money needs to be spent on the GG bridge….
NO IT DOESN’T! You said it came from tolls? Then LOWER the tolls by whatever $217 million allows! .

Quote: SOOPOO

Answering Geno….. I know A LOT about public health stuff. I worked at my county’s public hospital. It is the safety net for our 1,000,000+ patient area. I can assure you that $200+ million could be better spent on their clinics, outreach programs, vaccination initiatives, etc….
I’m not saying that suicide prevention initiatives are bad. I’m saying the particular one being discussed is not worth $200 million.

As far as I think Gandlers point about the money needs to be spent on the GG bridge….
NO IT DOESN’T! You said it came from tolls? Then LOWER the tolls by whatever $217 million allows! .

It precisely does, that is how special districts work. Also, the project was funded 5 (or 6 I guess) years ago, and is essentially done now (if you wanted to oppose it, doing it during public hearings -when it actually could have been altered or cancelled- would have been the proper time.) Why this sudden obsession with a local project that you are probably not funding? (I doubt you go over the Golden Gate Bridge regularly.)

Even if you convince everyone that this was a waste of money, and that homeless shelters should be built on the Golden Gate or such somehow, what mechanism is there to alter or cancel the project at this point in the timeline? (there is not one.) This is the absolute wrong time to be outraged about this project even if you think it is a waste of money (it is not, Golden Gate has the highest number of bridge suicides in the U.S. -possibly the world depending on which stats you follow, either way it is either 1 or 2 in the world - . )

Quote: SOOPOO

Answering Geno….. I know A LOT about public health stuff. I worked at my county’s public hospital. It is the safety net for our 1,000,000+ patient area. I can assure you that $200+ million could be better spent on their clinics, outreach programs, vaccination initiatives, etc….
I’m not saying that suicide prevention initiatives are bad. I’m saying the particular one being discussed is not worth $200 million.

As far as I think Gandlers point about the money needs to be spent on the GG bridge….
NO IT DOESN’T! You said it came from tolls? Then LOWER the tolls by whatever $217 million allows! .

So I ask the question again, what would you have done, Public Health Expert, to reduce suicide attempts off the Golden Gate,

Quote: GenoDRPh

So I ask the question again, what would you have done, Public Health Expert, to reduce suicide attempts off the Golden Gate,

The real question is how many more lives than 30 / year can $217,000,000 save spent on other programs. The bridge protection is really just another form of "If it saves one life it is worth it". That is seldom if ever actually true.

Quote: kenarman

The real question is how many more lives than 30 / year can $217,000,000 save spent on other programs. The bridge protection is really just another form of "If it saves one life it is worth it". That is seldom if ever actually true.

So at what price point is preventing a suicide cost effective?

Quote: GenoDRPh

So I ask the question again, what would you have done, Public Health Expert, to reduce suicide attempts off the Golden Gate,

Do you actually believe that if there was no Golden Gate Bridge that these suicide attempts would not happen elsewhere? That it is the existence of the Golden Gate Bridge that is causing these suicide attempts? Are you going to spend untold billions of dollars on all structures high enough for a suicide to occur!? I live near Niagara Falls. I think there are more successful suicide attempts by people going over the Falls. Believe it or not, they were actually able to divert all the water flow over the American Falls elsewhere (they did repairs). Should they never resume the flow to prevent those suicides?

How many fewer suicides do you think there will be if ONE location is eliminated as a possibility? You don’t think other bridges/buildings/cliffs/self inflicted gunshots/intentional drug overdoses wouldn’t just till the void of no GGB to use?

I’m not a public health expert. But I am a taxpayer/toll payer concerned citizen. I don’t want in excess of $200 million spent on ONE bridge to make it harder to commit suicide on that ONE bridge.

Quote: GenoDRPh

So at what price point is preventing a suicide cost effective?

Society only has so much resources (money). Suicide prevention is not the only item on the list of spends. Whatever money we decide to spend on mental health issues including suicide prevention should be budgeted to obtain the maximum effect. I am sure that we can get more bang for our buck than $217 million on one bridge to save 30 lives / year.