Mounting Concern Follows Recent Colorado Street Bridge Suicide Jumps

Following another suicide jump over the weekend from the Colorado Street Bridge – grimly nicknamed “Suicide Bridge” since the 1930s – fears and concerns from local residents and community leaders have risen again, especially with the ongoing development of new Habitat for Humanity homes in Desiderio Park almost directly below the span.

Several witnesses reportedly saw James Reed Johns, 38, of Newport Beach, leap to his death from the bridge Saturday morning at about 8:30 a.m., according to Los Angeles County Department of Medical Examiner-Coroner officials.

Sonja Yates, president of Habitat for Humanity in Pasadena, told the Public Safety Committee last month that her local office has begun meetings of a suicide prevention task force that she said was in response to what she called the “changing needs of the new Desiderio Park” now that construction of low-income housing units located there are nearing completion.

“Before this new development,” Yates told the Committee, “there was no park below the bridge, and now we’re going to have these good enhancements for the area, but they require special consideration for safety, on your part.”

Of 28 Colorado Street Bridge deaths reported between 2006 and 2016, 70 percent of the victims have been male, averaged 40 years old, with 51 percent non-hispanic White and 37 percent White Hispanic, according to Michael Johnson, director of the Pasadena Public Health Department.

The deaths occurred in January, July, March, April, September and November. Most suicide attempts during that time have occurred in May, said Johnson.

A number of local residents have quietly voiced their concerns about living so close to the bridge, which, while it retains a noted reputation for suicide attempts, has claimed only 2.5 deaths a year between 2006 and 2016.

In fact, between 2011 and 2015, Pasadena Police “talked down” 21 would-be jumpers, There have been more than 150 deaths at the bridge since 1919, mostly in the 1930s, during the “Great Depression,” a total of less than 0.65 attempts a year since its construction.

But the name and reputation have stuck fast over the years.

As one 31 year-old local resident who lives near the bridge, told Pasadena Now in a series of Facebook messages, “It is difficult, and has unfortunately become a part of our everyday lives. Our first weekend in the neighborhood there was someone on the bridge, but luckily they were talked down. Our neighborhood is regularly blocked in the middle of the day for law enforcement to do their job. Knowing there’s someone nearby in so much distress that they would want to end their life really puts a damper on your day.

“It is something I have discussed with many friends,” she continued, “neighbors as well as a therapist. It is unpleasant, especially when it is happening in your backyard.

While the resident has never actually seen anyone jump from the bridge, she said, “We have seen people up there many times. In most cases they have been talked down thanks to the amazing law enforcement and counselors up there on the bridge. I was walking my dog nearby when someone jumped off the bridge last Saturday. I feel very fortunate that I did not witness it, but I could’ve easily. It’s not something I ever wish to see.”

The new Desiderio Park development now being built underneath the bridge has raised new fears that jumpers may “land” in the new childrens’ park area which is being built between the new homes and the foot of the bridge, a distance of about 100 feet.

In fact, Council member John Kennedy asked Yates at the recent Public Safety Committee meeting if the new residences are “located under the bridge in any way, so that people jumping or leaping from the bridge could actually land on one of the new residences?”

Answered Yates, “That’s not true for the residences, but it is true for the top part of the park and for the park users.”

Indeed, a cursory look at the proximity of the new homes to the bridge is unnerving, as it appears that the trajectory of a jumper’s fall could easily be affected by a sudden gust of wind, resulting in a possible landing closer to the homes.

However, Chuck Hudson, communications director of the West Pasadena Residents’ Association (WPRA), supports Habitat for Humanity and the new home development, saying, “We support the wonderful effort they are engaged in there, and the opportunity for some very fine families to own their own homes. The fact that people jumping off the bridge might land in their areas might impact them, but I think that this is more of the city’s responsibility to try and find ways to stop people from killing themselves on the bridge. If they close that avenue, people will find another one.”

He added that WPRA would “support some type of community exercise to try and come up with a solution to the problem.”

The bridges’ proximity to the development is something that Habitat for Humanity “has been aware of for some time,” said Mark VanLue, executive director-elect for San Gabriel Valley Habitat for Humanity. “It’s something that we’re hoping to make a difference on in the future,” explaining with group’s work with a suicide task force of experts “brainstorming” and trying to find solutions “might help dissuade this kind of activity.”

VanLue said that the building’s construction and development was not affected by the location of the site, and that the buildings are “set back” from the bridge. “The situation Saturday and the incidence of jumpers and suicide attempts did not necessarily play into the design aspect of the project.”

Lisa Derderian, public information officer for the Pasadena Fire Department, emphasized the importance of the City’s specially-trained Police task force which responds to suicide calls, saying that they will “talk to people for eight hours to get them down. Often that’s all the people want. Just someone to talk to.”

City Manager Steve Mermell has also said that netting underneath the bridge has been discussed by the City Council before, particularly by Councilmember Steve Madison, but that discussion has been held up because the bridge is a historic landmark.

The City of San Francisco recently approved plans to install netting below the Golden Gate Bridge, which has seen nearly 2,000 suicides since its construction in 1937.

The $200 million installation will begin in 2018 and is expected to be completed in 2021. The stainless steel netting will hang 20 feet below the bridge, and 20 feet out from its edges for a length of 1.7 miles.

“The University of California studied 500 people who were taken off the bridge and 10 years later, 96 percent were alive or died of natural causes,” said Eve Meyer, executive director of San Francisco Suicide Prevention.