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Jessica Strobel, then a newcomer to Newport Beach, was bored one day when she went on the hyper-local social media platform Nextdoor to see what might be going on in her neighborhood.
She had moved in December 2019 from Corona, where she raised her kids. Now that she was single and living in a new city, she was looking to make new friends. But when she looked at Nextdoor’s Bayside, Newport Beach site she found just two groups offered, neither of which was quite what she was looking for.
In January of 2020, shortly before the pandemic caused the economy to shut down, Strobel decided to start a group on the Nextdoor app called Newport Singles. The first event she planned was a happy hour at the Bungalow in Corona del Mar. Six people ventured out that January evening to meet one another. The new group was officially launched.