Food Truck Fridays are back in Victory Heights in 2022, this time for dinners instead of lunches. Started last year during the pandemic, we’ve brought back some of your favorite trucks (plus some new ones) with two different ones each week, serving food between 5:30 and 7:30 PM on 19th Avenue NE next to Victory Heights Park. The street is closed down and tables and chairs will be set up for folks to eat at.
On May 6th, on a damp but tolerable evening near the park, we hosted three trucks, including a donut vendor (so yum!). Georgia’s Greek Food truck is seen here.On May 13th, we hosted The Cheese Pit and 314 Pie.
Coming May 20th: Paparepas (Venezuelan), and Yummy Catch (Asian, Seafood, Southern). (Forecast is sunny and 63 degrees–don’t miss it!)
May 27th: Sam Choy’s Poke to the Max (Hawaiian) and Po’Boy & Tings (Creole).
Volunteers needed to help close 19th Avenue NE at 5 PM and help set-up and tear down tables. Sign-up here, or just show up.
The Victory Heights Community Council invites you to help volunteer this Saturday, May 21st to expand the sidewalk on the north and south sides of NE Northgate Way between Roosevelt Way and Lake City Way by picking up litter and removing weeds/leaves. While the event will be running between 9 AM and 2:30 PM, you can sign up for shifts as short as 30 minutes. Please bring work gloves and garden tools if you have them. SignUp for a shift here… https://signup.com/go/bZWRKRJ
On Tuesday, May 3rd, the Lake City Neighborhood Alliance (LCNA) will be holding a town hall zoom meeting to present their solution for filling the funding gap needed to improve parks, repair buildings, and build a new community center in Lake City.
With the help of the City and State Legislature, the LCNA has secured $11 million and the City has pledged $5 million more for a Lake City Community Center. Additional funding is needed to complete this and other major projects for Seattle. The Seattle Parks and Recreation Commission was formed separately by and with the City Council to provide separate taxing authority, within a limit. A 33 cent tax rate would increase the annual property tax bill on a home that has an assessed value of $880,000 by only $110.48 each year. This would insure that a new full service community center is fully funded and built, as well as fund other projects in Seattle parks.
The zoom meeting will be held between 6-7 PM on the 3rd to hear more about this solution. This is a chance for them to share their vision, answer some questions and to prepare LCNA to support those who will testify before the Seattle Parks and Recreation Commission on May 12th to encourage them to fund their vision. Tim Motzer, retired from Seattle Parks & Recreation has prepared a detailed report on this solution. For a copy, contact him at: timmotzer@aol.com Here is the zoom information:
Topic: YOU ARE INVITED: Funding Our Shared Vision: A New Lake City Community Center with Housing Time: May 3, 2022 06:00 PM Pacific Time (US and Canada)
Due to the forecast of 80% chance of rain on April 30th, the Victory Heights Emergency Communications HUB drill has been moved to Saturday, June 18th from 10 AM to 1 PM in Victory Heights Park.
We’ll talk about how the Hub works, make sure all the roles are filled, and then start running thru scenarios. Drills are great fun and so informative; everyone learns by doing. You can hold back and be a citizen actor (read a scenario and watch as the Hub volunteers help you) – or SignUp to take on a role in the Hub. Additional guidance on the different roles coming asap!
Food Truck Fridays, a big hit during the pandemic last year, resume this year on May 6th every Friday from 6-8 PM for dinners. Each week two different trucks will be parked on 19th Avenue NE next to the park (which will be closed to traffic) with tables and chairs set up. We encourage people to gather, eat, and hang out each week.
In other news:
May’s TeenFeed will be on Monday the 9th, if you’d like to donate food from a set menu, please write to VH.TeenFeed@gmail.com.
The Thornton Creek Alliance is having a meeting on Thursday, April 28th from 7-9 PM via Zoom. The topic this month will be “Advocacy, Agreement, Action: How to Move The Needle” with panelists Representative Gerry Pollet, Katherine Lynch, and David Moehring. Register here.
On Saturday, April 30th there will be a drill of the Emergency Communication HUB in Victory Heights Park from 10 AM to 1 PM. We need volunteers to come and familiarize themselves with the workings of the HUB and how it will help the community in case of a disaster.UPDATE: Postponed to June 18th. See next post.
April 5th, 2022 marks the 10th anniversary of the Victory Heights Blog. It originally started when my wife left me a note one morning that read, “You should start a neighborhood blog.” So I did! It was first hosted on WordPress and soon I absorbed the previous neighborhood blog, A Place Of The Towering Firs (which is why you can find articles older than 10 years here). Then I found out the Pinehurst folks had already bought the victoryheights.org domain for a site they were going to start in order to regenerate the Victory Heights Community Council which had been dormant for several years by that point. I was put in contact with them and they let me host the blog there for several years. A few years ago, the Victory Heights Community Council eventually bought the domain ourselves and moved the server to a commercial ISP.
Since 2012 there have been over 500 articles posted to the blog, plus pages devoted to things like the pandemic-era Seattle Skeleton House. Meanwhile, the revived Community Council has had four Presidents, and now a robust Board of Trustees to help us grow our community and make Victory Heights a great Seattle neighborhood.
Here are things happening in and around Victory Heights this month:
Saturday, April 9: Windermere’s annual FREE shredding and electronics recycling event,10am to 2pm in the front courtyard of Broadview-Thomson K-8 School (13052 Greenwood Ave N.) – This is a FREE event, but they will be collecting donations for Broadview Thomson’s Food Pantry. If you would like to donate, please bring non-perishable items. Monetary donations accepted. Thank you!- All documents will be shredded on-site.- Items will be recycled with certified processors in the Northwest and not shipped overseas. Items not accepted: Large appliances (washers/dryers, stoves, dishwashers, etc.), Tube TVs/Projection (Flat screen TVs are accepted), CRT Monitors, Water Heaters, BBQs, Patio Furniture, Exercise Equipment
Monday, April 11: TeenFeed at 5pm. Help us feed 55 homeless teens in the University District. Details and signup here… https://signup.com/go/UWJHVee
Monday, April 18: Victory Heights Community Council meeting via Zoom. Email to sign up for Zoom credentials.
As we move into nicer weather and hopefully past pandemic restrictions, the Victory Heights Community Council is gearing up for another productive year, but we need your help.
For the first time in a long time (20 years?) we have robust Board of Trustees in place, but we are always on the lookout for more participation. Trustees need to either be involved with one of our neighborhood committees or serve as an officer on the Council (President, Vice-President, Treasurer, or Secretary).
Amongst the things we are involved in:
The return of Food Truck Fridays, starting May 6th. We’ll be moving it to dinner time (6-8 PM), feature new (and more trucks) than last year, and we’ll be closing 19th Avenue NE next to the park to traffic so folks can come, relax, and enjoy their food along with (hopefully) lots of sunny, warm weather.
We are going to apply for a matching grant to hire someone to advise us on traffic calming, and to “pay” for it we will be doing volunteer hours working to clean up the sidewalks along Lake City Way.
Our By-Laws need revising. It’s been nine years and some things need updating. We hope to present these to the community in April to approve.
New signs: We need to advertise our Monday night community meetings, and other events.
Teen Feed: Every 2nd Monday of the month, Victory Heights provides food for the Teen Feed, these are preset meals, you only have to make a single contribution. Sign-up at VH.TeenFeed@gmail.com.
We need someone to be our representative at the Northeast District Council meetings. Just once a month.
Looking for a volunteer to help assemble some handwashing stations (which will be deployed during Food Truck Fridays, among others). We have the parts, and instructions, just need someone handy.
A fire Sunday night at an apartment complex in the 10200 block of Lake City Way drew 22 response units including two hook-and-ladder trucks.
Lake City Way was closed between NE 100th Street and NE 104th, forcing cars to divert through Victory Heights.
By 7:45 PM (after the initial alarm at 7:09), several units were cleared and able to leave the scene.
According to the Seattle Fire twitter feed, “10000 block of Lake City Way NE: Fire extinguished and no injuries were reported. Incident is under investigation.”
At the February meeting of the Victory Heights Community Council this week, President Ben Cober reluctantly announced he would be resigning at the end of the month.
Ben, who had been renting a house in Victory Heights while serving as president for the past two years, alas had to look elsewhere in order to buy a house for his growing family, and it has taken him away from our neighborhood (and city, AND county–those house prices are no joke!). In addition to energizing our community council during his term, Ben spearheaded the recent Winterfest, Mayor Mondays last year, and Food Truck Fridays (which is coming back–see below). We are really going to miss Ben, who seemed to have limitless energy and ideas for improving our community, and we thank him for his service. Watch Ben’s farewell address on Facebook.
Meanwhile, the council has resurrected the Board of Trustees, to help guide the community council going forward, with volunteers stepping up to either chair or co-chair various committees. You can read about the new Trustees here. Elections will soon be held for the four officer positions in the community council: President, Vice-President (unfilled for several years now), Treasurer, and Secretary. Former president Ann Forrest will step in as an interim-president until then.
Upcoming Events: Teen Feed will be back in March after a brief hiatus.
UPDATED: Learn more about the Emergency Communication Hubs – from the comfort of home! (Hubs help our community support one another after a disaster; our gear is in that tan, metal box next to the tennis court.) Thursday, March 17th, 7pm Sign up here – https://signup.com/go/QqKLiEn . Another event is coming April 30th. [The original article had an event listed on March 6th which was canceled.]
In May, Food Truck Friday will resume, now in Prime Time (6 – 8 PM), with two (sometimes three) trucks a week bringing delicious, fresh fare to our neighborhood (by the park). It will include 14 new trucks we didn’t see in 2021, it should be an exciting, delicious time throughout the summer.
The next meeting is Monday, March 21st via Zoom. Join our email list to keep up to date.
