‘We’re in a crisis’: Richmond tests public health innovation in health care desert

While Kaiser has done its best to fill the gap in West County since Doctors Medical Center closed, its 50-bed capacity is small compared to nearby facilities. Alta Bates, shown in red, may close by 2020, potentially further reducing the number of hospital beds in the area. To move the map, hold shift and drag.

Richmond residents’ access to health care is limited, and the situation is not improving. Policies at the state and federal level have put providers in dire financial straits, and access to emergency and primary care does not look good for West County. But proponents of a new approach to public health, one that’s being tested in Richmond, say that health is more than just health care. This new municipal ordinance, called “Health in All Policies,” treats the city planner as the city’s doctor. But in Richmond, where many people have trouble getting access to a medical doctor, will this prescription for the city as a patient be effective?

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Transportation Commission approves grant to better Iron Triangle

Pogo Park crew and volunteer residents posed for group photo before ending the last hour of the Living Preview. (Photo by Candese Charles)

The California Transportation Commission approved a $6 million grant for a plan to improve Richmond’s Iron Triangle neighborhood. Known as the Iron Triangle Yellow Brick Road Walkable Neighborhoods Plan, the project aims to improve streets notorious for high crime and blighted conditions. Pedestrians and bicyclists would get safer, cleaner pathways to schools, parks and churches. The paths would be…

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Candlelight vigil for Lincoln Plair honors a giving spirit

A man prays at a vigil

Until his death, Lincoln Plair would show up each morning at 8 a.m. at the Elm Playlot in the Iron Triangle to pluck broken glass, syringes and other dangerous debris from the sandbox where local kids play. Then he’d leave his daily mark: a series of geometric patterns in the sand, “like a little Zen…

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