For example, in more affluent zip codes like Walnut Creek, for example, you may live until you're 87. In West Oakland, however, your life expectancy is more like 71.
This week, they look into the challenge of reducing those disparities.
"For many people they view it as another chapter in the civil rights movement; it's been unaddressed. Martin Luther King specifically addressed the issue of the health disparities, and so they're saying for human decency reasons, let's begin to look at this. Why is it that people in our midst, are suffering such depravation and distress that they're dying 15 plus years more quickly than others," says Suzanne Bohan.
They've found a number of people who are fighting for better health conditions.
The story will be in the Contra Costa Times and The Oakland Tribune, Sunday and Monday.
