Home Care In Pleasant Hill, CA

PLEASANT HILL, Calif. - Thousands of workers at one of the Bay Area’s largest supermarket chains could soon walk off the job as contract negotiations between the union and Safeway continue.

Safeway Strike?

What we know:

United Food and Commercial Workers Local 5, which represents about 25,000 Safeway employees across the Bay Area and Northern California, voted last week to authorize a strike if a deal cannot be reached soon.

Union members rallied outside a Safeway store in Pleasant Hill on Tuesday, where roughly 100 workers picketed as negotiations remain underway. The union says it is pushing for higher wages, improved healthcare, and stronger retirement benefits.

"We just feel like we come to work, we’re dedicated, we give our blood, sweat and tears to Safeway," said employee Ardith Wells. "We just want to know as employees it’s reflected in our pay, our benefits, and what we’ve got."

So far, the Union says both sides remain far apart at the bargaining table.

"We’re pretty close [to striking]," said Wells. "And by all means, if that’s what we have to do to get treated fairly, then that’s what’s going to happen."

Fair wages desired

Union leaders say wages at Safeway have not kept pace with inflation and that current full-time salaries, averaging around $28 an hour, are not enough for many workers to get by in the Bay Area.

"Settle with the workers in Northern California like you did in Washington, like you did in Southern California, like you did in Colorado," said Jim Araby, a spokesperson for UFCW Local 5. "People want a little more of an increase, just so they can live on a full-time job here."

A strike could affect Safeway locations throughout the region if an agreement isn’t reached in the coming days. Union officials said a walkout could happen as soon as next week.

The other side:

In a statement to KTVU, Safeway said: "We remain committed to engaging in good-faith discussions to reach a new agreement with UFCW locals. We are hopeful a resolution will be reached soon. We value our associates and the critical role they play in our success. We have put forward a strong offer that includes meaningful wage increases, continued investment in secure healthcare coverage, and the long-term stability of the pension plan, reflecting both the dedication of our associates and the real economic conditions facing our industry."

Featured

Open House Saturday September 6 & Sunday September 7 - 1pm to 4pm

Welcome to Your Forever Home in the Heart of Pleasant Hill

Tucked into the quiet charm of Hillsdale’s most desirable neighborhood, this beautifully renovated single-story home offers the perfect balance of comfort, style, and space — all on an expansive lot.

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Located minutes from daycare centers, parks, the canal trail, and local dining and shopping, this home is as convenient as it is charming. Award-winning Pleasant Hill Elementary and the top-rated Sequoia Schools are just a few blocks away, while nearby Dinosaur Hill Park offers stunning Diablo Valley views and scenic hiking trails.

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The music heats up in Downtown Pleasant Hill this summer as the Annual Summer Concert Series continues with a sizzling July performance by Patron Latin Rhythms on Thursday, July 17, from 7:00–9:00 p.m. at Crescent Drive Plaza in front of Jack’s Restaurant & Bar.

Known for their infectious blend of Latin jazz, rock, mambo, and Latin funk, Patron Latin Rhythms promises to deliver a vibrant, high-energy performance that will get the whole crowd dancing. Their dynamic sound, rooted in traditional Latin rhythms with a modern twist, makes them a can't-miss highlight of this year’s summer series.

The free Summer Concert Series is one of Pleasant Hill’s most anticipated seasonal traditions, offering a diverse lineup of live performances from June through September. Concerts are held on select Thursday and Friday evenings, creating the perfect midweek escape for residents and visitors alike.

2025 Lineup:All concerts from 7:00–9:00 p.m.

In addition to the fantastic live music, concertgoers can enjoy dining and shopping at the many nearby restaurants and retailers, with businesses along Crescent Drive open during and after the shows.

“The Downtown Pleasant Hill Summer Concert Series not only promotes community engagement but also boosts local business, creating a vibrant cultural and economic environment,” says Brandi Hardy, Marketing Director for Downtown Pleasant Hill. “Patron Latin Rhythms brings an exciting Latin flair to our July concert that will make for an unforgettable summer evening.”

For more information about the concert series and Downtown Pleasant Hill events, please visit www.shopdowntownpleasanthill.com.

About Downtown Pleasant Hill

Downtown Pleasant Hill delivers the ultimate shopping experience in a distinctive outdoor setting where visitors can immerse their shopping senses with a unique blend of specialty retailers, personal services, and restaurants.

As California ramps up the pressure on cities to build more high-density housing, some suburban communities feel like they're under attack. One neighborhood in the East Bay is sounding the alarm over a development that isn't even being proposed.

The concern is over a piece of property at the end of Beatrice Road in Pleasant Hill. The vacant lot is about to undergo a change, at least on paper. The city will be designating it as 'Multi-family, Medium density' to allow the same kind of housing, three-story townhouses, that already exists right across the street.

"So, that's the zone change that the city is proposing," said City Planner Troy Fujimoto. "What I think is misunderstood is that there's a current General Plan designation that is already 'Multi-family, Medium.' "

He said it's been that way for more than 20 years, but for technical reasons, it was never expressed that way. He said the city is simply trying to clear up that confusion.

"And so, really, the city is only clarifying that that is the matching zoning," Fujimoto said. "So, it's not technically changing the type of development that can be done there, but it is renaming it, if that makes sense."

But it doesn't make sense to the neighborhood on the other side of the property. An alert has gone out on social media to "Save Poet's Corner," saying, 'Don't tear down our homes," featuring a drawing of a bulldozer tearing into a house. Homeowners are very protective of their neighborhood and local real estate broker Pete Sabine, who grew up there, knows why.

"Poet's Corner is probably the most desirable neighborhood in Pleasant Hill," he said. "It does change the fabric of the community when you do high-density zoning in a low-density area."

The homes in Poet's Corner aren't giant mansions, but they are well kept, and the narrow tree-lined streets, each named for a famous poet, Emerson, Byron, and Hawthorne, give the neighborhood a romantic, intimate feeling.

It's brought the neighborhood together, and it has become somewhat famous as a prized Halloween trick-or-treating spot. People love living there, so any hint that towering condo buildings may be coming makes people feel a little jumpy.

"It feels like you're getting encroached upon," said long-time homeowner Brad Rieser. "I think we bought here feeling this is all single-family type home area, and we kind of want to keep it that way. If you got a high-rise building that's imposing on the feel and the view. That's a big deal."

But the truth is, there is no plan to build anything there, at least for now. The vacant lot was put on the city's housing element list, as required by law, only as a potential site for new multi-family homes. There are no proposals to do that. But that doesn't keep people from worrying about it, especially when the State is willingly giving developers more and more power to force projects, whether cities want them or not.

Sabine said he didn't think the city would have much say if someone did want to build in the neighborhood.

"Probably not," he said. Probably not. That's the sad truth. And it's too bad. Because I think there's a better way to get high-density, create more housing, and hopefully affordable housing, without coming in and impacting these low-density neighborhoods."

The fact that there is currently no plan to do that doesn't put people's minds at ease. In Poet's Corner, they know that could change tomorrow. And the neighborhood could be at the mercy of State lawmakers who say, 'Yes, In My Backyard' when they're actually talking about someone else's yard.

John Ramos

John Ramos accidentally launched a lifelong career in journalism when he began drawing editorial cartoons and writing smart-alecky satire pieces for the Bakersfield High School newspaper.

This post was contributed by a community member. The views expressed here are the author's own.

Teens often have difficulties with sleeping. Sleep is necessary for good health and mental health. Here are tips to help teens

When teenagers were attending school remotely, many teens developed habits of sleeping in longer and staying up later. Summer vacation has not helped this issue. To most teenagers summer means sleeping in and staying up later playing online games with their friends or watching movies on their phones. This definitely does not promote a good sleep pattern for middle school and high school students. Besides impacting their school performance, getting enough sleep also impacts a person’s health and mental health (CDC). Therefore, a teenager’s sleep pattern is a serious issue. Teenagers think their parents are just making an issue out of nothing, but it does seriously impact their health and mental health (CDC). A fact many teenagers will be disappointed to hear.

Now that summer is ending and school is beginning, teenagers are not going to be able to stay up or sleep in. Some parents are struggling with their teenagers sleep habits. They report their teenagers are having a tendency now to want to sleep in later and are sleeping more hours on average. Many parents are stating that their teenagers are taking naps on a regular basis. Parents are telling me that they are trying everything they can think of, but they are not being too successful at changing their teenagers sleeping schedules.

A very interesting fact is that teenagers are telling me the same thing. Many teenagers are reporting since remote schooling started and most people were confined to their homes, they are sleeping more than they did before the pandemic. Many teenagers are also saying they don’t want to be sleeping as much as they are but they can’t seem to change their pattern of sleeping more since the pandemic.

This is an unique situation when parents and teenagers are agreeing on a problem behavior. Additionally, both acknowledge that they are trying to reduce the number of hours they are sleeping but nothing seems to be working. For many teenagers, not being able to return to their pre-pandemic sleep habits is very annoying. They are reporting having difficulties doing everything they need to do in their lives because they can’t change their current sleep schedule and they are sleeping too much.

I have had many parents asking me and emailing me regarding getting children and teenagers back on a healthy sleep pattern for school. Many parents are looking at this as an opportunity to get their children and teenagers on a healthy sleep pattern because their teenagers were never on a healthy sleep pattern to begin with. As a result I researched teenage sleep patterns and found some very good information from James Maas, PhD., who specializes in sleep patterns, and he wrote the book, Power Sleep for Success. According to Dr. Maas many teenagers are sleep deprived because beginning at puberty up until the age of 25 around midnight teenagers brains begin producing human growth hormones and reduces the amount of melatonin the brain produces. As a result, teenagers are not ready to sleep until 2am and their brains are ready to wake up at 11am. Dr. Maas refers to this as Chronic Delayed Phase Syndrome and states that every teenager suffers from it.

Since the amount of natural melatonin being produced in teenagers brains is reduced, many parents try providing their teenagers with melatonin supplements. The parents hope that by increasing the amount of melatonin in their teenagers brains with melatonin supplements that teenagers will be able to sleep easier. However, this may not be the case.

Dr. Maas has this to say about melatonin supplements. He states they are not the best way to get your sleep. First, 3 mg of melatonin is the maximum amount that an adult needs, and many over-the-counter formulations start at 5 mg. Some even go to as high as 10 or 12 mg. You are peeing away a lot of melatonin that your body doesn’t need and can’t process. It does work, but there are other options on the market that work just as well as melatonin or better: (1) lavender, either in tea or in a spray; and (2) valerian root. These two over-the-counter supplements actually have been clinically proven to have a sleep-inducing effect.

Dr. Maas has outlined several steps that teenagers can go through before trying to go to sleep. He believes that if children and teenagers follow these steps on a regular basis that it will help a teenager fall asleep. He also believes these steps will help teenagers get enough sleep so they are not sleep deprived and are ready for school the following day. Here are the steps Dr. Maas recommends that children and teenagers follow before their bedtime:

We know that the amount of sleep that a child or teenager gets is related to how well they do in school, but it is associated with many more aspects of a teenager’s life. Dr. Maas noted that sleep is really the one thing that underlies all of good health. Good health refers to both physical and mental health. When you are getting enough sleep, stress goes down and immunity goes up. It’s linked to greater longevity and reduced risk of car accidents, cancers, and heart attacks. If teenagers could add just one more hour of sleep to their daily routine, they would find that they have a higher GPA, that their athletic skills are better, and that their social life and ability to manage stress and anxiety improve. Anxiety symptoms are being reported at epidemic rates by teenagers since the pandemic. Everything hinges on getting enough sleep. If I could tell teenagers one thing, it’s this: If you want to do well in school and on the athletic field, getting more sleep is the single best thing you can do. I have seen this in many teenagers that I see for psychotherapy. Additionally, most teenagers who are having difficulties with anxiety or suicidal thoughts are sleep deprived.

Therefore, parents it is important to make sleep an important issue with your children and and teenagers. If you explain to your children and teenagers why it should be a priority, you increase the probability that your children and teenagers will understand why sleep is important and will work with you to help them increase their amount of sleep especially as they try to adjust their schedules and lives to a post pandemic world.

Dr. Michael Rubino is a psychotherapist with over 25 years experience treating children, teenagers, trauma victims and first responders. For more information about his work visit his website at www.RubinoCounseling.com or his Facebook page at www.Facebook.com/Drrubino3 or his podcasts on Spotify or Apple.

The views expressed in this post are the author's own. Want to post on Patch?

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