What Neighborhood Favorite Local Business Winners Have in Common

When local businesses thrive, communities thrive.

While local businesses are core to building vibrant local economies and communities, they create memorable gathering spaces where neighbors come together. Gathering is defined as the conscious bringing together of people. Whether it’s to celebrate something monumental like an anniversary or a new job, or just to catch up with a friend over coffee, many special moments we hold dear to our hearts happen at the local businesses in our community.

Every year, Nextdoor announces its Neighborhood Favorites winners to recognize the businesses that make our neighborhoods special and to help deepen the relationships built between local businesses and the neighbors who love them.

This year, we noticed that the most popular Neighborhood Favorite businesses were those that help us gather with the people closest to us. From pizza places and farmer’s markets, to coffee shops and bookstores, neighbors shared their love for these businesses the most.

One of our favorite books here at Nextdoor, The Art of Gathering written by Priya Parker, notes that gathering is one of the foundational rights individuals are granted in democracies, because when people come together, they exchange information and inspire one another, which in return shapes the way we think and feel about the world.

There is such power in gathering with people we know and don’t know. So we encourage each of you to check out your Neighborhood Favorites and find a place to gather with new and old friends and neighbors! You just might discover a new way to look at the world, and what’s more exciting than that?

Have you checked out the neighborhood favorites in your Nextdoor community yet? See any that hold a special place in your heart? Let us know in the comments or share with us on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram.