Yippee. The ludicrous price of gas means more shipping businesses may relocate to the Valley 'cause it's a great halfway point to lots of somewhere else's.

I got to thinking outside "the Valley as a call-center megalopolis" box while touring the new Holiday Inn downtown and viewing the unveiling of a snazzy web site redesign by the Fresno Economic Development Corporation. The site reminded me how much we need to elevate our aspirations.

A medical school. Biomedical research. Might more six-figure salaries translate into the kind of political clout that could blow out the Valley's bad air? Can we replace jeans from the Gap with Fresno-based genetic re-engineering? Cutting edge needn't only describe the sharp blade of a pruning knife.

Community Medical Centers is the region's safety net, the only burn and Level 1 trauma centers between LA and Davis. It's got the kind of high-tech gear and top-notch medical professionals to rival what Stanford and others offer. We educate hundreds of doctors and medical students on our campuses each year, in cooperation with the University of California, San Francisco.

And, as local economic developers unwind their come-hither sales pitches, they should tap into the fact that Community is major economic engine for the region.  It's fast approaching a one BILLION dollar annual budget. It pays out more than $400 million in salaries and benefits to its more than 6,000 employees.

Community is nonprofit and locally owned -- and it invests whatever it earns back into the local community. Community annually buys about $115 million in goods and services from vendors in Fresno and Clovis ALONE.

Each hospital job supports two or more jobs elsewhere in the economy, according to an American Hospital Association (AHA) survey released in April. One out of every 10 private-sector jobs is supported by hospitals.

Yet too often the good that hospitals do is taken for granted. "When investors, policymakers and the public think about industries that promote economic stability and growth, most do not think about hospitals," AHA said in its report.

Any group that's seriously trying to grow the Valley toward a healthier, more prosperous future would do well to incorporate hospitals like Community into its strategic plans.