We have block watch in place here, and everyone makes an effort to get to know one another and look out for each other. My neighbours are mostly a bit (or a lot) older so I'm not friends with them or anything, but we exchange pleasantries when we see one another.
We actually had a potluck style block party today - I didn't attend but my parents did. I attended the last one but it was a lot of older people so it wasn't really that fun for me (lots of good food though!), that's why I skipped out on it this time around.
It's still cool they do stuff like that to make an effort to get to know one another and create a community here. The organizer of the block watch emails us frequently about happenings on the block, if there are break ins or suspicious people we need to look out for, stuff like that.