You need to get out of your car and walk the streets to get a glimpse at what makes Los Angeles so special. The greatest things about this city are hidden in plain sight. Life here is participatory, those who put in the work reap the rewards.

Forget the tourist traps and Instagram destinations, it’s the people who live here that make this city go. I’m not talking about the hordes of new arrivals with fantasies of stardom and fame, most of them give up and move back home before they have any idea what life here is about. I’m referring to the people who grew up here and still call the city home, the locals who build and power everything that makes Los Angeles great. Random conversations at the bus stop or bumping into a childhood friend at In & Out make one of the largest cities on earth seem like one big neighborhood.

Despite the enormous size of the city or the dense, sometimes secluded neighborhoods that make up most of it, our common experiences bind us to each other. If you’ve never felt the electricity in Koreatown during the World Cup or experienced the atmosphere in the streets when the Lakers are good you may not understand what community truly means in L.A. Even as gentrification threatens to erode the exterior, the heart of the city will always persevere. The millions of untold stories of struggle and achievement are etched into the underlying structure, always visible to those of us who know where to look.