GOLDEN
GATE BRIDGE SUICIDE BARRIER COALITION
Minutes ~ January 25, 1999
Present: J. Vidaurri, E. Jindrich,, M. Hallett,
L. Meredith,, R. Seiden,, E.Angotti, L. Dorfman
Presentation by Russ Haycock
of
Z-Clip: Russ Haycock provided us with an
overview of what has been happening with their proposal
and the activities of Z-Clip Corporation. The Z-Clip
design patent lapsed and, at this point, Russ is
just trying to sell a suicide deterrent not necessarily
the Z-Clip design. He said the Bridge district
has allocated money for the design project, research,
testing and then public meetings. At this point,
we are at Phase II. An architectural review panel
needs to meet and decide. The review panel was quite
critical of the Z-Clip design; some did not like
the overhang. Z-Clip has submitted a new design
using a straight wire member. The following are
members of the Architectural Review panel and they
will meet on February 3rd.
Howard Backen
Henrik Bull
Donald Sandy
David Macdonald
The Bridge Board feels that the railing is an important
visual aspect of the bridge and needs to be kept.
Russ indicated that Z-Clip has returned to the Bridge
Board with alternatives to the original Z-Clip design.
Russ and his partner personally reviewed old designs
and suggested eight new designs to be presented
on 2/3/99 at the Architectural Review meeting. M.
Hallett asked Russ if he thought that the Bridge
District would want a prototype again and Russ indicated
that he felt the GGB District would drag this out
as long as possible. He feels that staff is supportive,
that M. Giacomini will want 1000 ft. of prototype
up and available for public comment, and that the
Directors are the resistant ones due to political
pressures. Fraser is an advocate. The whole process
is politically charged.
Russ said that M. Giacomini
wants Wind Tunnel testing simultaneously with the
erection of a prototype. Wind Tunnel Tests are done
by an outside contractor.
Russ showed us architectural
rendering of a project they are working on for a
bridge in Florida. That bridge is two miles long
and he indicated that the barrier would be the same
cost per mile for the Golden Gate Bridge. Z-Clip
is, by far, the cheapest option that the GGB District
has explored and the District has never indicated
that they have a dollar limit for a barrier. (The
median Barrier is supposed to cost 6 or 7 million
dollars)
It
would be key to get an independent advisory panel
of architects to support something. An endorsement
by architects would help things to move along. Z-Clip’s
goal is to get the Architectural Review Panel to
state a design preference. We need to find out who
the Building and Operations committee is and to
approach them. Russ Haycock suggests stepping up
contact with individual board members. The process
is; the Architectural panel reviews, then Building
and Operations acts and sends recommendations on
to the full Board for voting. He feels media attention
would be very helpful.
L.
Dorfman suggests that we hook up with something
that is happening now. We need to update
statistics and think through
the elements that make this worth a media attention.
BBC was trying to do that. Some one noted that it
is probably more interesting to speak with people
who went to the bridge and didn’t jump. L.Meredith
suggested putting together stories from the other
suicide sites and how it has been handled in those
jurisdictions. We need to revisit the number of
suicides and add those to last year’s figures.
Media Stories
We
need to know who is now on the committee and push
for any type of barrier. L.Dorfman suggests that
it might be worthwhile to do a commentary on KQED
on the day of the committee meetings. Decision-making
becomes a matter of public record if illustrated
by commentary. It is much more effective to do this
when the board meets, that way the media will know
too. J.Vidaurri will find out when the next meeting
is and let Lori know. L.Meredith suggests that another
angle for stating our position would be that there
was a similar “suicide by jumping” problem in a
certain place which has now been corrected due to
a barrier or deterrent.
Erv’ s Editorial E.Jindrich
indicated that he got some comments on his article.
In an IJ Editorial/article, Ross didn’t talk about
the suicide barrier as one of the items that the
bridge was working on. A follow up letter needs
to be written to Ross or in response to the article.
Board Member Survey’s There were no additional responses
to the survey mailed to Bridge Board Members even
though a second request was mailed out.
New Coalition
Members A letter to the Dean of the
School of Public Health at UC Berkeley will be drafted,
inviting the new Dean to be an advocate and to be
listed on our letterhead.
Next meeting
MARIN ~ Monday, March 1, 1999 7:00PM
at Marin Suicide Prevention
10 San Pedro Road, San Rafael
(Across from the Civic Center) |
