Northland makes ripples around KC

The different parts of Kansas City — from the Northland down to Cass County — all have their own personalities, but we’re all tightly linked, sometimes in surprising ways.

Jennifer Bhargava describes one of those links in today’s 816 North cover story on KC Pet Project. The Kansas City operation that’s headquartered on Raytown Road in Kansas City is a no-kill shelter, and that’s thanks in large part to all the animals who find homes through the Northland adoption center in Zona Rosa. Almost a third of the KC Pet Project’s adoptions last year happened in Zona Rosa, and the facility there is about to nearly double in size.

But we also have our unique charms up here. One of them, The Dish — Famous Stuffed Pizza Restaurant & Bar, is closing, Joyce Smith reports in her Cityscape column. The restaurant is set to shut in March, but you’ll still be able to find its pizza in the frozen cases of 150 grocery stores in Missouri, Kansas, Iowa and Nebraska.

And it was wonderful to read Susan Vollenweider’s column about the power of annual holiday letters during the week that my family was packing away all our Christmas decorations for next winter. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.

This story was originally published January 7, 2014 at 2:01 PM with the headline "Northland makes ripples around KC."