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Hysterically Historical #6

By Pete Jacobsen
Posted: 04/12/2025

If Eastside Village opened for business in October of 2025, you can be sure that planning had been going on for some time before that. One of our early members remembers meeting 18 months to 2 years before the launch date.

At that time Villages Northwest, our Hub, had already been formed, and during those pre-launch months, several potential Spokes were working toward becoming a village. In our area, there was one group targeting North of Powell, up to the Banfield expressway, and another group targeting South of Powell, down to the city limits.

These groups held many meetings, but could not get across the finish line to launch their village. Although there were differences of opinion, the biggest problem for both groups seemed to be size - they just couldn't attract enough potential members. Eventually both groups lost energy. It seemed the effort to launch a Village was doomed.

At that point, someone (I really hope to find out who!) called a meeting of both the North group (Eastside) and the South group (Reside In South East, RISE), and asked the question: if we are too few separately, can we do it together? Things began to happen!