About

Any person.
Any study.
Any Cornelliana.

An alumni
blog about Ezra's
University. (more)

Contact

Comments?
Suggestions? Tips?
Leads?

editor(at)metaezra.com

Links

-- WVBR

[+] Cornell News

[+] Higher Ed News

[+] Campus Pubs

[+] Alumni Interest

[+] Diversions

[+] Blogs

[+] Sports

[+] Other Places

Archives

[+] By Month

[+] By Author

Barrier Update: City Approves Nets


This week, in a 7-2 vote, the Ithaca Common Council gave final approval to Cornell’s plans for permanent suicide barriers on three city owned bridges. This means the current fences will be coming down next summer, according reports in the Cornell Daily Sun and the Ithaca Journal . They will be replaced by suicide nets—horizontal projections 15 feet wide—below the Thurston Avenue and the Stewart Avenue Bridges. Cornell will also be putting up suicide nets on most of the bridges it owns (The Suspension Bridge will be covered with a wire mesh cage instead).

Under its agreement with the city, Cornell will construct all the barriers and “make their maintenance, repair and other obligations of operation and ownership wholly or substantially 'cost-neutral' to the city during the term of the agreement.”

The Planning Board must still approve the final designs, but with Cornell and the majority on the Common Council both on the same page, I think it’s unlikely it will reject the barriers outright.

Meanwhile, Ellen McCollister, who voted against the barriers, and Dan Cogan, who voted for them, are challenging Cornell to make a separate agreement with the city to track suicides as they occur in the coming years, in order to determine if the barriers are having any effect on the overall suicide rate. “I also want us to track the costs and effectiveness of the rescue and recovery operations,” McCollister told Meta Ezra. “My hunch is that there will be plenty of people (and objects) landing in the nets, even though Cornell is quick to argue that no one has jumped into the Bern Muenster nets since their installation.”

Some suicide barrier studies have failed to answer the question of whether barriers really cut the jumping suicide rate, because they do not cast a wide net. In addition to the City and Cornell, the leadership of nearby state parks should also be engaged to report suicides that may have been displaced to these places--especially those involving Cornell students.


Dan Jost | Posted on December 12, 2011 (#)

blog comments powered by Disqus



Other Recent Posts


-- WSJ: Cornell Wins NYC Tech Campus Bid (EBilmes)

-- Barrier Update: City Approves Nets (DJost)

-- Big Red Cymbal Guy (Nagowski)

-- New York Times Survey on Campus Recruiting is Flawed (KScott)

-- Barrier Update: Legal precedent suggests City of Ithaca will not be held liable for gorge suicide (DJost)

-- Despite MSG Loss, Big Potential for Big Red Hockey (EBilmes)

-- City Council Will Vote on Suicide Nets (DJost)

-- An Encounter on the Upper East Side (Nagowski)

-- Showing Off Your School Spirit (Nagowski)

-- Chipotle Ithaca? (KScott)

-- Cornell at the ING NYC Marathon (KScott)

-- Crossing Over a Fine Line: Commercial Activity on Campus (KScott)

-- Milstein's Downfall (Nagowski)

-- Can any Cornell-associated organization really be independent of the University? (Nagowski)

-- Slope Media Revisited (EBilmes)

-- Slope Media Group Approved for Byline Funding (KScott)

-- Occupy AEM? (KScott)

-- New campus pub to be good for both Greeks and non-Greeks (Nagowski)

-- Gagging the Election (Nagowski)

-- The Changing Structure of Rush Week (Nagowski)

-- Ivy League Humility in the Midwest (EBilmes)

-- Of Median Grades and Economics Minors (Nagowski)

-- Homecoming Recap (Nagowski)

-- My Cornell Bookshelf (Nagowski)

-- The Sun's Opinion Section Has Suddenly Gotten Good (Nagowski)

-- Remembering the 11th (Nagowski)

-- Cornellian Tapped as Top Economic Advisor (Nagowski)

-- Cutting Pledging, and the Good Which Comes With It (EBilmes)

-- Why Cornell Should Not Close Fall Creek Gorge (Nagowski)

-- Welcome to the Class of 2015 (Nagowski)