Overall I really like the local SF paper, the coverage is generally good, the writing legible. I don't have too much to complain about, but occasionally the paper takes on a "cause" and recently it's taken on the cause of Suicide. It ran a seven, yes, seven part series about suicide on the Golden Gate Bridge. The basic conclusion of the article: 1800 or so people have killed themselves by jumping off the bridge since 1937. Roughly, that's 20 or so people a year.
Let's put this is perspective.
The only reason it looks like a big number is that it's an accumulation of all the suicides since the bridge opened and it's not compared to any other cause of death or even compared to other types of suicide. There are roughly 200 suicide deaths a year in San Francisco county. There's even more if you include the deaths in the adjacent counties. The Golden Gate bridge should not be the major concern. There are many other ways of saving lives in San Francisco that don't require spending millions of dollars and destroying the aesthetics of a national landmark.
Today the Cronic ran an alarmist article regarding the lack of a suicide barrier on the new Bay Bridge. This is really starting to get annoying.
Ok, so I'm a cold, insensitive bastard. Disagree with me? Leave a comment below.
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