MAYOR'S STROKE PUTS FOCUS ON TWO ISSUES
LEIGH WEIMERS column, January 30, 2004

As unsettling as Mayor Ron Gonzales' State of My Health address was Wednesday night, it did put the spotlight on a couple of areas that need illumination:

The need for more hospitals to concentrate on stroke treatment. At present, only one hospital in Santa Clara County -- Good Samaritan -- has a certified stroke center. The Stroke Awareness Foundation formed by Vice Mayor Pat Dando, builder/developer Chuck Toeniskoetter and other stroke survivors has been working to get more such centers. If you're interested, you can go online to www.strokeinfo.org or write to the foundation in care of the Health Trust, 2085 Hamilton Ave., Suite 150, San Jose, Calif. 95125.

The future of San Jose Medical Center, where Gonzales was taken. The HCA chain that owns it has said it needs to transfer many of the downtown hospital's functions to Regional Medical Center of San Jose, across Highway 101 on Jackson Avenue. No decision yet on what'll be left. But with the central core's population expanding and City Hall moving downtown, will the city fathers and mothers be satisfied with most services a few miles away, not blocks?

MOVING RIGHT ALONG: Like a number of other Bay Area people, Ron Pernick and I were less than satisfied with another recent address: President Bush's State of the Union. We'd been hoping for more of an emphasis on technology than what we got -- one sentence saying we should work to reduce our dependence on foreign oil.

''This administration has shown some activity,'' says Pernick, a founder of Clean Edge in Oakland, a consultant to energy start-ups. ''But it does not appear to have clean energy high on its agenda. Other countries -- Germany, Japan -- are taking a more active role.''

Yes, the president last year said he'd commit $1.7 billion to fuel-cell research, but not much has been said since. And I wish he hadn't limited the research to fuel cells. I'd like to see wider research that would find a way for us to do away with our need for oil, period, foreign or domestic.

After all, it's a national security issue. We know that oil revenue from nations such as Saudi Arabia finds its way into the hands of terrorist groups. We put up with this because we need the oil. If we didn't -- if the world didn't -- those folks would be left with what they had before we all became oil addicts: a pile of sand covering useless black goo.

''There's more activity on alternative energy on the state and local levels than the federal,'' Pernick notes. Maybe that's how we'll have to save ourselves. That's the take of Silicon Valley venture capitalist Tim Draper of Draper Fisher Jurvetson, which is backing a number of alt-energy start-ups. ''I believe, as the president almost certainly does, that alternative energies are best served by the private sector,'' Draper e-mails. ''The government can provide proper incentives, etc., but should not get in the way of the progress of an industry with such vast potential for start-ups, and entrepreneurs -- and jobs.''

Nothing wrong with doing well by doing good.