Even years after the COVID-19 pandemic, leaders in at least one city in the KC metro worry that residents seem to still be staying away from each other.

Their idea to help people get out of their homes and get to know their neighbors better? Giving them money to throw a party.

North Kansas City’s new Block Party Grant can pay residents up to $400 to cover the costs of a neighborhood block party.

“I want to shout from the rooftop so people are using this, meeting their neighbors and building a community,” said Mayor Jesse Smith .

When Smith was campaigning, he said he encountered residents who had lived in their neighborhood for years but did not know any of their neighbors. And at a recent Northtown town hall meeting a Star reporter attended, multiple attendees admitted to the grou

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