Another Geary Blvd.?

Thanks for your continuing good coverage of the California Public Utilities Commission and Pacific Gas and Electric Co. in the last issue. Here is another ridiculous deal the CPUC and PG&E have cooked up to ruin a city treasure.

Concerned about Dolores Street looking like Geary Boulevard? We are. Attend the upcoming SFPUC meeting on Jan. 27 at 1:30 p.m. in City Hall Room 400.

Residents are highly concerned about street lighting to be installed the length of Dolores Street early this year. This is the final step of very welcome utility undergrounding in that neighborhood, which is funded based on a settlement of previous complaints against PG&E. However, the light fixtures that were selected with no local community input are historically inconsistent and energy inefficient. SFPUC selected modern aluminum cobra light fixtures, similar to those used on Geary Blvd., unlike the historic fixtures they just installed in the adjacent neighborhoods of Dolores Heights and Liberty Hill and throughout Dolores Park itself.

Various groups of neighbors oppose this selection, and have asked the PUC to require PG&E to substitute energy efficient, historical fixtures which have been created for use throughout other parts of the city – for example, Van Ness Blvd., the Embarcadero, and Upper Market Street.

Please send your opinion to Sup. Bevan Dufty, who is attempting to work with the city's Department of Public Works to overturn the PUC's decision, at bevan.dufty@sfgov.org, and consider attending the upcoming SFPUC meeting.

Charles Spiegel
San Francisco

St. Luke's and patient care

After reading A.C. Thompson's Jan. 7 article on nonprofit hospitals, I'd like to offer a different perspective ["Charity?"]. My residency training was at San Francisco General Hospital and I have a lot of love and respect for that institution. For the past 21 years I have worked as an emergency physician at St. Luke's and have been a member of the board of directors during the affiliation with Sutter Health.

All hospital emergency departments are required by law to perform medical screening exams and stabilize emergency medical conditions prior to asking information about a patient's insurance or ability to pay. This is not only a legal requirement; it is also part of the mission of St. Luke's since its founding 130 years ago. Twenty percent of our emergency department patients are uninsured. Until managed care drastically reduced payments to doctors and hospitals, these patients were provided for out of cost shifting. Now, the economic impact of caring for the uninsured and Medi-Cal patients (at about 20 percent of charges) makes it hard to find doctors to take call for our emergency departments or to open practices in our city.

St. Luke's has kept our doors open to all comers. While S.F. General diverts ambulances close to a third of the time, St. Luke's diversion rate for 2003 was 6 percent. The high number of uninsured at our hospital was a major factor in our operating at a loss for many years. Without Sutter Health's contribution of over $100 million since our 2002 affiliation, St. Luke's would have ceased operations.

The issues raised are important and deserve discussion. Who should pay for health care services for the indigent? The private sector does benefit from nonprofit tax status, but should hospitals like St. Luke's be forced to offer uncompensated care to the point of bankruptcy? The city receives local and state tax funds for public health purposes. Why should they be permitted to turn away ambulances a third of the time, delaying transports throughout the system and compromising good patient care?

Marc A. Snyder, M.D.
San Francisco

Dolezal's perfect cartoon

I wish when Jerry Dolezal draws such a poignantly perfect cartoon like the January calendar with each day showing the troops killed in Iraq that the Bay Guardian had a higher circulation [editorial cartoon, 1/7/04]. This cartoon needs to be seen and re-seen and updated. The absurdity of killing American troops along with Iraqi people because of our military presence in the Middle East has long passed irresponsibility and is deeply into willful malice.

Chris Scott
San Francisco

The chains don't care

Regarding your letter from Tess Manalo-Ventresca of the Sunset Neighbors for Action ["Up against Starbucks," 1/7/04], the following is a story I would like to relate:

A few weeks ago I helped organize an American Red Cross blood drive for the company I work for. As part of getting out the word for the blood drive, I and a co-worker went to about 50 stores in the immediate neighborhood (downtown Berkeley) to ask if we could put, in the various businesses' windows, an American Red Cross poster which included where and when the blood drive would be located. With one exception, if the store was part of a national chain, whether coffee shop, optical services, whatever, I was told it was against company policy.

The lesson I learned was a large portion of the strength of the fabric of any society will always be found in its locally owned and operated businesses rather than the large retail/service chains whose sole motivation is maximizing shareholder value.