Government

West County voters to decide on parcel tax to save Doctors Medical Center

Residents of West Contra Costa County will vote this fall on a special parcel tax to support the ailing Doctors Medical Center in San Pablo. The five-member West Contra Costa County Healthcare District board, the elected body that oversees the public hospital’s operations, voted unanimously last week to approve a ballot measure that would raise over $5 million per year to pay for the hospital’s continued operations.

North and East resident gets lawn makeover from neighbors

Looking out for your neighbor isn’t just about pushing aside a dusty curtain and peering across the street to see if everything is okay. For Richmond’s North and East neighborhood patrol, community safety means going outside their neighbor’s homes, hitting the pavement and talking to people.

Part 8: North Richmond, where the city’s boundaries end

Civic leaders who seriously grapple with the question of how North Richmond can break its ruinous cycle of crime, poverty and decline often come to the conclusion that its current political arrangement is untenable – and that the city would fare better if it was annexed to Richmond.

Scores of volunteers and county agencies deploy for disaster response drill

Contra Costa College’s San Pablo campus was turned into a relief shelter for families displaced by a 6.1 magnitude earthquake that hit the Bay Area at 1:30 Tuesday morning. Didn’t feel the shock? That’s because the earthquake was made up as an exercise that gave volunteers a chance to practice giving aid to displaced families. And the pace? Perhaps a tad more casual than if it were a real disaster response—but only by a little.