Sam Spade's San Francisco

In a short five-month period the California Highway patrol has lost six of its members who died in the line of duty. This is a tragedy for all Californians and it needs to be recognized and treated as such.

The latest death is that of Officer John Bailey, I.D. 14664, who was killed late Saturday, February 25, as he was conducting a traffic stop. Officer Bailey’s motorcycle was parked behind the Ford Ranger he had stopped, while he made a right-side approach to speak with the driver. A DUI driver in 1991 Honda Accord drove onto the right shoulder at a high rate of speed, struck the CHP motorcycle and the Ranger, which in turn hit John. The Ranger was struck with such force it overturned, landing in the freeway traffic lanes. All parties were airlifted to Arrowhead Regional Hospital, where Officer Bailey succumbed to his injuries. The DUI driver, Mr. Domingo Esqueda, age 20, of Adelanto, CA reportedly had a blood alcohol level more than twice the legal limit.

Officer Bailey was killed by a drunk driver.

Here's what we can all do to help stop this carnage:

1) Do not, ever, for any reason, under any circumstances, drive any motor vehicle after you have had any kind of alcoholic beverage. Never. No exceptions.

2) Drive defensively. Watch out for vehicles that weave within their lanes or cross over into another lane. Watch for cars fast approaching from behind. Watch for cars in other lanes that may unexpectedly swerve into your lane. Keep your speed down at or below posted speed limits.

3) Report any vehicle that appears to be driving erratically to the CHP immediately. Try to get the license number, make, model and color of the vehicle, and how many people appear to be in the vehicle.

4) If you see a CHP vehicle ahead stopped along the side of a highway with emergency lights flashing, cautiously slow down, touch your brakes repeatedly to warn motorists behind you, and drive by the incident site at a steady and cautious pace. Do not suddenly brake to rubber-neck. Keep the flow of traffic moving. Keep your eye scanning from back to front and left to right. Watch out for other motorists ahead who may suddenly brake to rubberneck and may not be paying attention to the job of driving. Keep your eyes on the road and mind your own business, which is driving.

Officer John Bailey was the 209th CHP officer to give up his life in the line-of-duty. We all need to help stop this carnage now. This isn't a job for somebody else to do. It is a job for us all to do.

More information:
California Association of Highway Patrolmen
California Highway Patrol
Consequences of your first DUI

The Leadership Conference on Civil Rights (LCCR) was founded in 1950 by A. Philip Randolph, founder of the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters; Roy Wilkins, Executive Secretary of the NAACP; and Arnold Aronson, a leader of the National Jewish Community Relations Advisory Council.

In recent years the LCCR has been busy building a civil rights coalition for the 21st century. Coalition members include the ACLU, American Friends Service Committee, American Jewish Congress, American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee, Human Rights Campaign (HRH), Lambda Legal, National Association of Community Health Workers, National Congress of American Indians, National Gay and Lesbian Task Force , Unitarian Universalist Association and 181 other member organizations.

There cannot be a civil rights coalition for this century without addressing LGBT issues and the issue of marriage equality is the single most urgent and defining issue for the LGBT community. An online organization, civilrights.org, offers an impressive array of tools, references and resources. Coalition building is absolutely essential for the 21st century. We must learn what we have in common with others and come together with them under the common cause of civil rights.

The most important marriage equality organization in California is Equality California and they need to be on board with the coalition. EQCA needs the support and strenth of the coalition and should waste no time in joining.

References and Resources:
civilrights.org
civilrights.org LGBT page
LCCR Coalition
EQCA

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Google and the Google founders, Larry Page and Sergey Brin (shown in the photo), are doing everything they can to win the bid to provide Internet wireless service for San Francisco. They want to be the company that makes San Francisco one giant free Internet hot spot.

Last year Page's office contacted Mayor Newsom's office to invite the mayor to join Page at Squaw Valley ski resort for a weekend. The Mayor was otherwise engaged and did not accept the offer. Later, Google offered to give Mayor Newsom a free ride to the World Economic Forum in Switzerland aboard Google's private jet. The Mayor did catch a ride home from Switzerland aboard the Google jet, along with former Vice-President Al Gore, but the Mayor quickly reimbursed Google for the ride by sending them $1,000 to pay for his ride.

Google wants to win the bid to wi-fi the City , but they are going about it all wrong.

Are you listening Larry and Sergey?

What we want from Google is not perks for the Mayor. We want Google to make a solid commitment to establish a substantial presence in San Francisco. If they want to do business with the City and County of San Francisco, the best thing they can do is promise to relocate an impressive number of employees to San Francisco. Take two or three floors in one of our Financial District high-rises and move some of Google's senior executives here along with their support staffs.

Ski weekends and plane rides are cheap shots at winning our support. If Google makes a solid and substantial investment in San Francisco, we may be more willing to invest in Google as our city-wide Internet wi-fi provider.

Get the picture, Larry and Sergey?

Story tools:

CNet Google Blog

San Francisco Chronicle

Contact

Contact Mayor Gavin Newsom

It's not going to happen right away and it won't really happen on top of Nob Hill, but the boats at Fisherman's Wharf may end up floating in berths in North Beach in less than 100 years. Finally! ... a beach in North Beach!

The change isn't some crazy idea by the San Francisco Port Authority. It is the result of global warming. Scientists warn that by the end of this century the ocean may be three feet higher than it is today, according to a pair of studies that appear in tomorrow's issue of the journal Science.

"After that we'll be committed to multiple more meters of sea level rise that will occur at rates of up to a meter—or three feet—per one hundred years," said Jonathan Overpeck, an earth scientist at the University of Arizona in Tucson, who co-authored the studies.

"And it could go faster," he added.

The staggering cost of building the new Bay Bridge will pale in comparison to the cost of building a permanent sea wall to protect the City of San Francisco. Without the sea wall we can say goodbye to all the prissy poodle dogs, polished BMWs and oh-so-carefully furnished homes in the Marina. The Marina district is all reclaimed land. Actually the Marina is ordinary landfill. The people in the Marina live ... pardon me ... on what used to be the City Dump. When the sea level rises three feet the Marina will go back to being a slushy, muddy, swampy dump.

All the little souvenir shops crowded along Fisherman's Wharf will be gone (thank goodness!) and SBC Park will be an aquarium.

The only thing that can save them is a sea wall. At the rate we have been going in developing and building a new Bay Bridge there seems little hope that we will be able to save major sections of the City in time.

The good news is that those of us who live on one the City's many hills will have an even better view of a greatly expanded bay. The bad news is that none of us will be around to enjoy it ... but what kind of mess are we leaving for our children and grandchildren? The generations alive today are the most incompetent yet in the history of humankind.

National Geographic News also covered the story today and you can read it here.

You may learn more about global warming through the Union of Concerned Scientists here.

Click on the graphic at the top right of this story to see it enlarged in another window.

San Francisco - The Field Poll released yesterday shows that California overwhelmingly supports fairness and equal treatment for its lesbian and gay citizens. The poll asked 1,000 California adults their opinion on a wide range of issues, including how same-sex couples should be treated under the law. By a 3 - 1 margin, Californians support extending comprehensive legal protections to lesbian and gay couples; 44% registered voters would support a bill legalizing marriage for same-sex couples.

The report, complete with charts, was published by the Sacramento Bee and may be read here. You may also read more here in this article published by the San Francisco Chronicle.

The Equality California (EQCA) website has also covered the story in detail and may be read here.

To clearly read the San Francisco Chronicle graph shown on the above right, click on the image and then click to enlarge it. To email this article to someone, please click on the envelope icon below. Comments may be published by clicking on the comments link directly below. Your comments will be available to anyone to read by clicking on the comments link.

During Tuesday's White House Press Conference, this question was asked of President Bush:

PRESS CORPS: Mr. President, two years ago, Gavin Newsom, the Mayor of San Francisco, heard your State of the Union address, went back to California, and began authorizing the marriage of gay men and lesbians. Thousands of people got married. The California courts later ruled he had overstepped his bounds. But they were -- we were left with these pictures of thousands of families getting married, and they had these children, thousands of children. Now, that might have changed the debate, but it didn't. In light of that, my question is, are you still confident that society's interest and the interest of those children in gay families are being met by government saying their parents can't marry?

GEORGE BUSH: I believe society's interest are met by saying -- defining marriage as between a man and a woman. That's what I believe.

The President's answer is tired. It is the same old story being repeated again and again. When old entrenched positions are restated and no new arguments put forth, it is generally a good sign that change is in the wind.

The end of the tunnel is in sight for the man-and-woman-only argument. Change won't happen during the Bush administration, but it may very possibly happen in the next administration.

Marriage equality is the great civil rights movement of the 21st Century. To learn more about the movement or to be a part of it all, please visit the Equality California website at: www.eqca.org

This is St. Patrick's Day. It is a serious day for Irish Catholics and a moderately fun day for the rest of us.

Conservative Irish Catholics have always amused me. Their opinions are so set and one-sided. Consider the case of Mr. John Dunleavy, Chairman of the New York St. Patrick's Day Parade. The parade organization has repeatedly refused to permit any openly gay or lesbian group to march in the parade.


Beware of Old Dunleavy!

In an interview with the Irish Times, Dunleavy offered one of those delightfully crabby and distinctively Irish statements that seems ready for Saturday Night Live. He told the newspaper, "If an Israeli group wants to march in New York, do you allow Neo-Nazis into their parade? If African Americans are marching in Harlem, do they have to let the Ku Klux Klan into their parade?"

About the Irish Lesbian & Gay Organization that had requested permission to participate in the parade, Dunleavy said, "People have rights. If we let the ILGO in, is it the Irish Prostitute Association next?"

Wow. In one interview Dunleavy managed to compare the gay and lesbian Irish of New York to Neo-Nazis, Ku Klux Klansmen and prostitutes. Amazing.


Neandertals on the East Coast; Heroes on the West!

Dunleavy's views are so archaic that one must wonder if he tends to drag his knuckles when he walks. People like Dunleavy remind me how fortunate I am to live in San Francisco where that level of searing hate is very seldom seen. In fact, quite the opposite is true.

Irish San Franciscans are on a higher plane than their New York counterparts. Consider the man who occupies the San Francisco Mayor's Office. We could not hope for a better and more true friend to the queer community than fourth-generation San Francisco Irish-Catholic Gavin Newsom.


Egg on the Senator's face

I leave you on this St. Patrick's day with this little ditty: The place is Annapolis, Maryland where a committee of the U.S. Senate is conducting a hearing on the constitutional amendment to ban gay and lesbian marriage. We join the conversation in progress ...

"Mr. Raskin, my Bible says marriage is only between a man and a woman. What do you have to say about that?" -Senator Nancy Jacobs, Republican

"Senator, when you took your oath of office, you placed your hand on the Bible and swore to uphold the Constitution. You did not place your hand on the Constitution and swear to uphold the Bible." -—Jamie Raskin, Professor of Law

You can read the Gene Stone opinion piece from which the above was taken .

At 4:30 AM on April 18th San Franciscans will gather at Lotta's Fountain to commemorate the 100th Anniversary of the Great Earthquake and Fire of 1906. The earthquake struck at 5:12 AM on April 18th, 1906. Lotta's Fountain is located at the point where Kearny and Geary Streets meet Market Street. An early hand-colored photo- postcard photo of Lotta's Fountain taken shortly after the turn of century is on the right.

Mayor Gavin Newsom

In a letter posted on the San Francisco Rising web site Mayor Gavin Newsom penned these words: "From the days of the Gold Rush and the Barbary Coast, to the Summer of Love and the high-tech revolution, San Francisco'’s past is rich with lore and intrigue. But perhaps the single most defining moment in the City's history was the 1906 Earthquake and Fire".

"This catastrophe leveled virtually the entire city. But true to the enduring spirit of San Francisco, residents responded with honor and heroism. In the months and years following, the City recovered and was rebuilt. Today, we have risen from the ashes of the Great Quake to become an economic powerhouse and a cultural epicenter".

The early-morning gathering

The City estimates that between 25,000 and 50,000 people will gather in front of Lotta's Fountain in the pre-dawn hours of April 18th to mark the date. Singer Tony Bennett has been invited to sing "I left My Heart in San Francisco" and in addition to Mayor Gavin Newsom and the Board of Supervisors it is possible that Governor Schwarzenegger may attend as well.

California State Senate President pro tem Leland Yee and Assembly Member Mark Leno plan to attend along with Senators Boxer and Feinstein. All local televisions plan to send camera crews.

The Great 1906 Earthquake and Fire Exposition

The San Francisco Fire Department Historical Society is planning an Expo at Pier 48 on April 15th, 16th and 17th. For information about the events and enterttainment planned for the Expo visit their website at www.1906expo.com

Getting Ready for the Next Big One

The U.S. Geological Survey and the California Geological Survey have announced two new digital geologic maps of the densely populated section of the San Francisco Bay area. These maps are designed to give the general public as well as land-use planners, utilities and lifeline owners, and emergency response officials, new and better tools to assess their risk from earthquake damage. You can see the maps here.

The 1989 earthquake prompted the San Francisco Fire Department to create an all-volunteer rapid-deployment unit. The Neighborhood Emergency Response Team (NERT) teaches hands-on disaster skills that will help the members function as part of the special emergency response team. You can learn more about NERT here.

The State of California offers an Emergency Supplies Checklist for earthquake emergencies here.

The American Red Cross offers disaster preparedness information here.

City College of San Francisco (CCSF) offers a course in First Responder Training. More information about the program is available here.

Information for disaster registry and a wealth of important additional information is available from the San Francisco Emergency Medical Services Agency here.

The California Office of Emergency Services (CA-OES) coordinates major disaster relief and response. More information is available here.

The San Francisco Office of Emergency Services (SF-OES) is the local link to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and offers important local information here.

On July 15, 1896, the U. S. Navy Battleship Oregon, built here in San Francisco, was officially commissioned. She was 348-feet in length and displaced 10,288 tons. Her sister ship, the USS Olympia, Admiral Dewey's flagship, was also built in San Francisco by Union Iron Works. Together they were two of the most famous warships of the Spanish-American War. A brief film documentary of the construction of the USS Oregon was made in 1898, one of the earliest films of its type. The scene is filmed at lunch time and shows the ship workers leaving the shops. Later, Union Iron Works built two U.S. Navy submarines in San Francisco, the USS Grampus and the USS Pike.

The Port of San Francisco is responsible for managing seven and a half miles of San Francisco Bay shoreline with more than 1,000 acres of prime real estate. The gem properties include the historic San Francisco Ferry Building and Markletplace, Fisherman's Wharf, one of the undisputed top tourist attractions in the world and the Giants Ballpark

Still, things are not well for the Port of San Francisco.

The Port is in danger of losing seven historic piers and the historic buildings at Pier 70. Salt water, more than 100 years of wear and tear and required seismic upgrade work is estimated to cost more than $1.1 billion. The Port is short some $734 million!

The historic buildings at Pier 70 are those of the old Union Iron Works, the company that built the hero-warships of the Spanish-American War. It will cost $252 million just to rebuild and preserve the buildings.

The Board of Supervisors has not been helping matters. An $85 million hotel deal to have been built on Port property failed because of opposition from the Board. The Board of Supervisors also killed a deal to bring the USS Iowa to San Francisco, a project that would have been a huge tourist attraction and would have brought needed money to the Port of San Francisco on a regular and steady basis.

The USS Iowa is one of the most famous and largest battleships ever built for the U.S. Navy. It is more than 887 feet long and displaces 45,000 tons! It's four massive propellers deliver a total of 212,000 horsepower to bring the battleship up to a top speed of 33 knots. It would have been an amazing tourist attraction and a solid cash cow for the Port.

The hotel deal and the USS Iowa may not have been able to generate the entirety of the funds needed, but they would have substantially reduced the deficit and eased the crisis in which the Port of San Francisco now finds itself. Two amazingly inept decisions by the Board of Supervisors may now cost the City much of its history.

Last week San Francisco Police homicide inspectors arrested Kyle Adams, 24, and charged him with manslaughter. To everyone familiar with the death of Chad Ferreira, 27, who was allegedly beaten to death by Adams earlier this year on Castro Street between Market and 18th, the charge should have been murder.

At one point Adams is said to have beaten Ferreira unconscious and knocked him to the sidewalk. Witnesses said Adams walked away, returned, and kicked Ferreira in the head after he was already unconscious.

To most observers this is a clear case of murder, but not to San Francisco Chief Assistant District Attorney Russ Giuntini. He said it is a problematic case. He is not sure he and his department can win a murder conviction. The best they can hope for is a simple manslaughter conviction.

Hastings law professor Rory Little told the Bay Area Reporter that there have been cases with similar circumstances to Ferreira's killing in which defendants have been convicted of murder. You can read the full story in the B.A.R. here.

District Attorney Kamala Harris has often been criticized for under-charging cases. The Ferreira case is an example of weak prosecution after competent police work. We don't need a District Attorney's office that doesn't think it can win cases. We need a District Attorney's office that is tough as nails. The SFPD and the people of San Francisco deserve and demand much better than we are getting. We want prosecutors, not wimps.

The next time you wonder why the San Francisco Police Department has trouble dealing with the City's murders, kidnappings, rapes and assaults, keep in mind that the SFPD turns the cases over to the DA's office which, in turn, has the responsibility for filing charges. This is the point where things begin to break down. Unfortunately, the San Francisco District Attorney's office has a reputation of under-charging cases which means, in turn, that the offenders are soon back on the streets causing more trouble for us all.

Kamala Harris is a talented and capable attorney. She can produce better than she is giving us. Why doesn't she step up to the plate and knock one out of the park ... at least once!

Come on, Kamala, you're up to bat.

The recent news that the San Francisco Redevelopment Agency unanimously voted to create a 1,300 acre redevelopment site in the Bayview - Hunters Point (BV-HP) is being met with mixed emotions. One one hand are many of the current residents of the BV-HP who say redevelopment will really mean minority relocation - a repeat of what happened to Black San Franciscans in the Fillmore. On the other hand are the civic planners and community leaders, including Mayor Gavin Newsom, who see the proposal as a way to give the BV-HP a needed economic boost to compliment the Third Street Light Rail project which is now almost finished.

San Francisco does not have a good record of preserving minority communities. The Japanese were all but kicked-out of San Francisco and today's Japantown is a weak remembrance of what used to be. Past city planning power brokers under the direction of Justin Herman during Mayor George Christopher's administration almost completely destroyed the thriving Black community in the Fillmore. These were dark and embarrassing chapters in San Francisco's history.

To prevent a repeat performance we absolutely must have the following:

1) We need clear and effective safeguards to assure that a 1,300-acre redevelopment of BV-HP is not going to dislocate Black families in favor of deep-pocketed yuppies in search of more landscape to gentrify. We need a clear and direct plan from the mayor to assure us of protection for the existing BV-HP community.

2) We also need - just as surely - a clear plan to keep the BV-HP from returning to being a dirty, crime-ridden, felon-infested narcotics supermarket. No taxpayer wants to give lazy, weapons-carrying gang-affiliated dope dealers new homes paid for by public money. This taxpayer, at least, wants only to put that variety of BV-HP resident into a cell at San Quentin. We need a believable plan from the mayor to close all those corner liquor stores along Third Street and turn up the police heat high enough that we can keep all those baggy-pants-wearing street-corner dope dealers in prison ... and that is going to require a very significantly increased budget for law enforcement in the BV-HP.

It is also going to take a strong and clear commitment from District Attorney Kamala Harris to prosecute those dope dealers and assure us that they stay behind bars.

A 1,300 acre redevelopment of the Bayview - Hunters Point community will only work if we have these absolutely essential guarantees in place.

(Resources to this story were updated Dec 1, 2010)


The U.S. Geological Survey and the California Geological Survey have announced two new digital geologic maps of the densely populated section of the San Francisco Bay area. These maps are designed to give the general public as well as land-use planners, utilities and lifeline owners, and emergency response officials, new and better tools to assess their risk from earthquake damage. You can see the maps here.

The 1989 earthquake prompted the San Francisco Fire Department to create an all-volunteer rapid-deployment unit. The Neighborhood Emergency Response Team (NERT) teaches hands-on disaster skills that will help the members function as part of the special emergency response team. You can learn more about NERT here.

The State of California offers an Emergency Supplies Checklist for earthquake emergencies here.

The American Red Cross offers disaster preparedness information here.

Information for disaster registry and a wealth of important additional information is available from the San Francisco Emergency Medical Services Agency here.

The California Office of Emergency Services (CA-OES) coordinates major disaster relief and response. More information is available here.

The San Francisco Office of Emergency Services (SF-OES) is the local link to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and offers important local information here.

UPDATED Important Resources:
City of San Francisco Emergency and Safety Portal
San Francisco Dept of Emergency Services
San Francisco Emergency Services Main Menu
U.S. Coast Guard Search and Rescue Emergency Resource List (excellent!)
72 Hours -- how to prepare for the next earthquake
San Francisco Fire Dept. NERT (Neighborhood Emergency Response Team)
U.S. Coast Guard Emergency Contact and Phone Numbers for SF Bay Area
USS Makin Island -- hybrid global disaster response platform
California Emergency Management Agency
California Emergency Medical Services Authority
San Francisco Fire Department Main Menu
San Francisco Police Department Main Menu
American Red Cross, San Francisco Bay Area Chapter
US Geological Survey Earthquake Main Menu
San Francisco Fire Department Water Supply System
San Francisco FD fire hydrant bay suction system
San Francisco Fire Boat Phoenix
San Francisco Fire Boat Guardian

Resources for information about the 1989 Earthquake:
Virtual Museum of the City of San Francisco
San Francisco Earthquakes -- timeline
USGS: October 17, 1989 Loma Prieta Earthquake
Selected photos from the 1989 Earthquake from USGS
Emergency medical response during 1989 Earthquake


International Search and Rescue Operations:

• Canadian National SAR Secretariat 
• Canadian Coast Guard Home Page 
• Civil Air SAR Assoc. Canada Homepage
• Australian Maritime Safety Authority
• Coast Guard Safety - New Zealand
• Maritime and Coastguard Agency - Great Britain
• RNLI--Royal National Lifeboat Institution 
• Lifeboat Services Around The World
• ONSA SAR and Maritime Security National Organization of the Venezuelan Acuatic Spaces
• RCC Bermuda/Bermuda Harbor Radio
• Irish Coast Guard

Last week I ran a story about the Golden Gate Bridge Suicide Barrier project and the death of Ken Bostock.

The original story has been updated and appears immediately below following this one.

I have received a number of emails about the story and some comments have also been posted to this blog. The following comment stands out from the rest because it is a plea for help from the family of a man who jumped to his death from the bridge on Valentine's Day.

I have no information about Toa Te'o. If you know anything about his suicide please contact his family at the email address listed below.

Following is the request as I received it:

"On February 14th, my brother in-law, Toa Te'o, jumped from Golden Gate Bridge. There were eye-witnesses but I.D. was not possible until many days later. We are looking for any information concerning his suicide. Please e-mail to "

The following story first ran February 24th. I received a number of emails about the story and one of them stands out as a personal message I want to share. That comment is below and the original article follows directly after.

"Ken was a friend of mine who I hadn't seen for a couple of years... I'm totally disgusted that KGO embarrassed him so much that he went into a deep depression. I think running the story AGAIN this year pushed Ken past the point of no return...

He went through enough hell when the story first ran... I hope Dan Noyes feels the guilt over what he helped cause for the rest of his life... Then again, lives don't matter, ratings do, right Dan?"

- an anonymous comment posted to Sam Spade's San Francisco


The original story:

On February 8th the San Francisco Chronicle reported that Supervisor Tom Ammiano, who also sits on the Bridge Barrier Projects Advisory Committee, planned to tell his fellow committee members to stop stalling and at very least, urge the Golden Gate Bridge, Highway and Transportation District Board of Directors to begin the feasibility study for a suicide barrier as soon as possible. The meeting at which Ammiano plans to make that request is today, February 24th.

Unfortunately, the day before Valentine's Day, Ken Bostock, a former gardener for the San Francisco Recreation and Park Department, jumped from Golden Gate Bridge to his death in the cold and churning water of San Francisco Bay.

Bostock was the subject of an ABC-7 News report that accused the gardener of shirking his duties and milking the City payroll. The scathing report by ABC-7 reporter Dan Noyes left Bostock in deep depression. He resigned from his job and worked part-time as a bartender for the Bar on Castro.

Dan Noyes, the reporter who had so much to say about Bostock on the air refused to comment on the gardener's suicide. Instead, he referred calls to ABC-7 President and General Manager Valari Staab who issued a carefully crafted statement that offered nothing of substance other than this chilly formal statement: "His death is a tragedy. We extend our deepest sympathies to his friends and family."

There are several issues that lead to Bostock's suicide.

ABC-7 went for a cheap shot. Dan Noyes was authorized to go out and uncover some dirt about San Francisco municipal employees. He wanted to assure his station of good ratings with a story that "uncovers waste and fat on the City's payroll." So, did he go after someone with authority in City Hall or perhaps one of the many loafers and couch potatoes who work for the Health and Human Services Department? No. Noyes took a cheap shot and followed an ordinary city gardener around town with hidden cameras.

It appears that ABC-7 publicly harassed and embarrassed this man to the point where he quit his job of 16 years and slowly sunk into deep depression. In my mind, ABC-7 , Dan Noyes and Valari Staab are partly responsible for this man's death.

The Bridge District is also partly responsible because of their unbelievably slow progress in approving a suicide barrier for the Bridge. It is because of the endless delays that Tom Ammiano wants to light a fire under the District. Bevan Dufty, a fellow advisory committee member, has also vowed to push for immediate action.

But other members, like Jerry Cochran (Del Norte County Assessor) for example, want to slow the process and spend more months and years in discussion about the concept of a suicide barrier. This is the kind of backward thinking that ignores the urgency and reality of bridge suicides.

"This tragedy, and the people who continue to jump and have jumped since the bridge board has entertained the idea of a barrier, really proves that enough is enough already," Ammiano told the Bay Area Reporter in an exclusive interview. "I'm asking them to begin the first phase of study. I got us $1.6 million of the necessary $2 million, and we need to move forward. I think they'll be agreeable."

I hope Tom is right and he finds the committee to be agreeable. We need to take solid action now to begin the process of getting those barriers up and in place.

In the meantime, let's hope media sensationalists like Staab and Noyes restrain themselves and stop adding to the problem.

Update: I received a note from Tom Ammiano that the Golden Gate Bridge Barrier Projects Advisory Committee voted to move forward with feasibility studies!