01 November 2007

It's Official: New York is depressing again!





After years of relative safety and fun (and occasional bouts of terror, panic and fear), tourists across the nation are now flocking to New York City to forever entwine themselves with oblivion!

It's raining tourists!

According to the Daily News, more than 10% of New York's suicides are committed by out-of-towners— 407 of them from 1990-2004.

Our buildings are tall and we have a large number of bridges, so it's natural that "jumping from a height is more common in New York than in the rest of the United States," as a report from the New York Academy of Medicine says.


A 31-year-old man committed suicide yesterday by jumping from a glass-enclosed elevator at the Marriott Marquis Hotel near Times Square and falling 45 floors. The man entered the lobby and asked if the building was the tallest in the area. After being told it was, he took an elevator to the 45th floor. The man then climbed through a maintenance entry onto the top of the elevator and dove off, landing in the building's sub-basement.

In the rest of the country, people tend to do kill themselves in the privacy of their own homes, but as usual, New York attracts the attention-seeking and the egotistical, and then crushes their narcissistic dreams by forcing them to confront the oppressive anonymity of their own insignificance. Or something deep like that. And by deep we mean depressing.

This helpful and macabre graphic from the News explains it much better.


"You wanna see a picture of my kids?"

I know the suicidal seem to really enjoy the Marriott Marquis for its giant open atrium and its proximity to Times Square. I know the M.E.'s office has collected lots of body parts from the balconies there.

What's your favourite hotel to committ suicide at? Text us your answer!
















Shortly after midnight Sunday the popular high-school senior threw himself from the 31st floor of the Marriott Marquis. He plunged to the 8th-floor Atrium Lounge and crashed onto a bar as guests looked on in horror. It was the third suicide at the Marriott Marquis in 20 months - and the second time someone had jumped from an inner balcony above the bar.


This reminds me I need to hurry up and watch my Netflix movies because I've got The Bridge next in my queue.

Some tourists choose city landmarks for suicide {Daily News}

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I read this story after someone had emailed me a reference to a similar one. I work with survivors - those who have lost a loved one to suicide - and know the deep pain, regret and guilt it provokes. I found the irreverent attitude expressed in the article to be dismissive and offensive. If it happened to you, you would be devastated and certainly more respectful of those who might be reading.

Gotham City Insider said...

You assume it hasn't happened to me and I haven't dealt with losing friends to suicide but unfortunately that's where you're wrong.

We all deal with pain differently. There is no right or wrong way.