When it opened 2 1/2 years ago near the Hudson River, the 150-foot-tall (46-meter-tall) piece of public art known as the Vessel looked like another surefire Manhattan tourist draw. It’s a strange honeycomb of platforms and staircases, partially ringed by skyscrapers, offered striking views of the waterfront and quickly became an Instagram favorite.
But these days it stands closed and empty, its entrances blocked off with chains or metal barricades, after a 14-year-old boy last month became the fourth person to fatally leap from the sculpture.
The death on July 29, a mere two months after the sculpture had reopened following previous suicides, has reinvigorated a call for real estate developer Related Companies to raise the height of the waist-high railings on the sides of the stairs and platforms.
“The only thing that’s going to work is raising the height of the barriers,” said Lowell Kern, chair of Community Board 4, which represents residents of the area. “At this point after four deaths, artistic vision doesn’t matter anymore.”
Read more at NEWSMAX.
{Matzav.com}
So I guess they will also close the George Washington Bridge as well. Many more people have jumped to their deaths from that bridge than any other NY location. Even the Verrazzano bridge should be completely shut down.
This is illogical insanity. So, because of a few bad apples, you completely shut down a famous tourist attraction?
There is, of course, a difference.
This, unlike the GWB, is “art”. There is no reason (other than the financial cost) that they can’t raise the “railing” to make it almost impossible to jump over the “railing”.
Observation decks internationally have very high barriers to prevent exactly this unfortunate occurrence, while still allowing not unnecessarily obstructing people’s vision.
2:34am, I haven’t visited this ugly piece of modern pseudo-art, but judging from the pictures, the railing is chest high, i.e. it would take a major effort to jump over it. Do you think that you will reduce ONE suicide by surrounding yourself with 20foot-high chainlink fences?! You don’t think that a suicidal crazy person will find a thousand other ways?!
Jewish law says every life is important. Pikuach nefesh overrides everything. Shabbos. Yom kippur. An attraction is not important. Life is.
Dear 9:05am am-hooretz, according to halacha, this modern architecture piece, ugly as it may be, does not qualify as pikuach nefesh – no matter how you twist it. Just because some crazy individuals prefer a certain location to commit a suicide, it doesn’t mean that it is this location that CAUSED their suicide.
You do understand that the Verrazzano and GWB’s purposes arent to serve as a tourist attraction, right?
Sheker 10:16, so according to you it’s not the crazy people that commit suicides, but it is the inanimate objects that make them do it?! Apparently you have a hard time differentiating between a cause and an outcome.
What sort of human being isn’t moved by a tragedy involving a 14-yr-old, who rather obviously was a young man having small troubles with family and school and who wanted to be HEARD (as opposed to taking his life) and who thought a dramatic gesture would work out like it does in movies. That is to say, with an ambulance ride and his parents, schoolmates, teachers finally realizing how much he means to them all.
You state you dislike the building and are uninterested in enjoying it, yet you don’t care for measures to be taken: do you think this is in line with sensitivity and appreciation for human life that are expected from a Yid?
I believe this building should remain closed until a way is found to address the issue, even if that involves installing barriers and ruining the experience for everyone else. As the community leader says, “At this point, after four deaths, artistic vision does not matter anymore.”
Dear 3:59am comprehension-challenged, let. me. repeat. extra. slow. for. you: this ugly building has nothing to do with these crazies commiting suicides. The fence is chest high, which is more than enough of a safety measure. The crazies will still commit suicides, even if you wrap-up everything in 20 feet of chainlink fencing. If you want to prevent suicides, don’t bother with fences; instead, stop medicating children who merely misbehave in school, and allow mandatory institutionalizations for those with severe psychiatric diagnoses.
I wonder if you also take issue with the Torah mandating a protection for the roof. After all there is a very definite difference between a cause and an outcome.
Dear 4:00am am-hooretz, the chest high fencing, already installed in this ugly building, more than satisfies the Torah fencing requirement.
Let me educate you regarding cause and outcome: purchase an airplane ticket to Tokyo, travel to Aokigahara forest(very popular spot for suicides in Japan), obtain a chain saw and start saving the crazies by cutting down the trees, enjoy your stay in a Japanese mental institution.
The city could also hire a staff of social workers to oversee everyone that wishes to climb to the top. After all, if they are good enough to replace the police, and to stop the gun violence, they are surely capable of preventing few suicide cases.