The City of Ithaca held another meeting on Cornell's plans to install suicide barriers this week. And a number of council members have come out against spending any city money on the nets, according to reports in the Ithaca Journal. The article makes the council look petty. Cornell has offered to pay the cost of the nets, is it really too much to ask the city to pick up on maintainence if they believe the nets will work? The humorous news site Scallywag & Vagabond picked up on this thread. But "it's not just about having Cornell pay the costs and maintenance of net installation " writes Councilwoman McCollister in an email. "A few of us on Council think it's a bad idea to install nets, regardless of whether Cornell pays or not." Recent research has called into question the effectiveness of suicide barriers--particularly when other jumping sites are available nearby. (More information here, here, and here.)"The idea that someone could potentially break their neck (jumping into the net) and turn around and sue the city concerns me," said Alderman Dan Cogan, D-5th. "I'm inclined not to support this unless Cornell would indemnify the city against lawsuits, costs, replacement. I'm not willing for the city to take on any costs for this."
Cogan echoed similar ideas from Joel Zumoff, D-3rd, Ellen McCollister, D-3rd, and Govind Acharya of the BPW.
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