Love Letters to LA

"This city hugs everyone like a soft cozy knitted blanket. You have taught me how to fight the unknown, embrace the unknown. You shaped me into what I am today."

— M.L.

"'Los Angeles what are you to me?'
I ask this question over and over.
Hoping someone gives me an answer.
But only I can find it within myself to understand."

— Hazel M.

"Oh, LA how beautiful and giving you can be. You gave my mom a secure job here, and my sisters and I a chance of an education. You give us a summer breeze that smells of carne asada, or the one that makes my hair go crazy, I can’t see forwards. The palm trees that swing back and forth, almost looking like they are saying goodbye or hello. You give us so much heat that it feels like we’re melting but oh it’s a beautiful day to go out."

— A.E.

"I love you for welcoming my family with open arms when they came to this country looking for a better future. Even though many peoples' loved ones have turned into memories on your streets, including even some of my loved ones, I still love you Los Angeles."

— Roberto G.

Dear Los Angeles,
You have taught me how to live and do many things that I didn't know how to do, you have taught me that not all people are the same
From you I know that things have to be done well
This is what I love. I love the people of Los Angeles, their parties, their food stands, their parks, in short.
Los Angeles is the place where I feel safe,
I learned English from you, you have taught me things that I didn't know about myself, your parks full of kind people, your parties every weekend, and always a food stand on every corner.

— Julian M.

"Los Angeles is a place where we get to meet new people, people who become lifetime friends. A city with hardworking people that get up early everyday to make sure their kids have everything they need. A place full of structures that tell stunning stories that people fall in love with. The city filled with love coming your way every day."

— Melissa M.

"You taught me how to play music by allowing my dad to open music studios within your very own streets of Hollywood. Streets that open your eyes to the endless possibilities and that make you feel at home as you see the big sign, lit up on a mountain."

— Harmony D.

"Here is where I met the beauty of books. They filled my eyes with wonder. There was this store called The Last Bookstore and it was beautiful. The store was telling its own story."

— Angel B.

"When I spend lots of money on gas because of all the sights to see, and I see the tourists coming to visit the things I also came to see but they traveled for hours and I took a 30 minute drive, it makes me think that I'm lucky I'm in the best city in the world. And the popular artists are coming to play here when other people have to travel out of their cities to come here to see them. The influencers you create because people think they can be the next big thing. The art on the walls I see in the street that tell the past, present, or what people think will happen in the future."

— Erik L.

"The City of Angels, where dreams come true and you fantasize about seeing your name on the walk of fame in a star. The corner store you remember from your childhood where you get a discount because the owner watched you grow up. The heartwarming feeling you get when you recall the old lady that used to come over and gossip with your grandma while you listened by the doorway in hopes of not getting caught."

— Daniela C.

"I love how the warmth of the sun always shines on you, no matter where I go. Your beaches, your hills, and your neighborhoods all mix together to make life feel full of possibilities. In every corner, there's beauty, from the murals of East LA to the glimmering skyline."

— Angel L.

"I have watched you burn I've seen the sky turn the color of yellow
Breathed in the smoke of old trees and lost homes
but when the sky clears, when the sun shines bright we will rebuild again and again"

— Emely G.

"I thought we would have stayed together forever. I remember the loud arguments, the ghost I had in my room, the giggles of my 3 year old sister, and the laughter we all had playing little games we made up."

— Darlene V., Compton

"The endless nights spent on your streets, shaping who I am today, from the arguments held, endless parties in the backyard of the house with what seemed liked millions of stairs on Mott Street, the lively music a never ending stream of hi how are yous to everyone or else I would NEVER hear the end of it from my parents, the place where endless summer days spent at the park, the sticky sensation of melting ice cream all over my face and hands giggling as I looked at my cousins and siblings who were equally as covered."

— Melanie A., Boyle Heights

"We fight for what's due Los Angeles, we fight it for you,
The city of Angels, beautiful, wonderful people, but is that really true?
LA do you still love me when people believe I don’t deserve love too?"

— Lesther G.

Why we love LA:

The golden light that embraces us here. Ocean sparkling in the sun. Pungent piney aroma in the mountains. So much to love.

– Anonymous

"For me the L.A. universe, while overwhelming upon arrival, gave me a freedom I never knew I craved. A healing I hadn’t known I needed, purging of prejudice I didn’t know I carried, a cleansing of my soul through exposure to new cultures, people from other countries, traditions, religions and viewpoints I hadn’t known until moving here."

— Kimberly Berg

I drove into LA on August 29, 2020 from St. Louis, my 74th birthday. I arrived to help my daughter and her husband as they awaited their first child. I planned to stay 6 weeks after the birth of the baby. Covid was everywhere; 6 weeks turned into 6 months. I travelled back to St. Louis but found I missed LA. Here it is 2025, I've rented a cottage, I go on hikes, hit golf balls at Rancho Park, hang out with the friends I have made in a wonderful knitting group. I love being close to my (now) two granddaughters, and their parents. Do I love LA? I sure do!

— Carol Flannery

Dear Los Angeles, you're the boyfriend I always wanted, allowing me to be whomever I need to be in the moment with zero judgement. I showed up here seven years ago with my dreams and a suitcase full of winter clothes I wouldn't need. I had been an unhappy suburban housewife in New Jersey, stuck and bored. Here, I am free to be me, and Los Angeles, my love, you embrace all of it. For this, I will forever have your back.

– Anonymous

Post Eaton Fire Pillow Talk with L.A.

I’m not ready to end this love affair, but you’ve kicked me out of bed. For nearly 30 years, sparks between us carried on mercurial winds. I was inspired, I was blown away. That is, the old me was blown away. I didn’t like her anyways. I had hoped she’d be left behind on my journey west. I’d hoped that making my way to Los Angeles would be the escape route I wanted, because before we became friends and lovers, I’d never been able to find my way out. I basked-baked in restorative-searing suns. On gentle, healing sea breezes, I drifted in directions unexpected yet rich — in love, experience, sorrow, and magic. 100-mile-per-hour, January winds denuded my illusions of safety, leaving me feeling naked and afraid. I’m sure it’ll make great entertainment someday, but I’m not sure anybody’s gonna be left to read my script. It’s over, I get it. I knew it was coming and I accept the writing on the wall. Still, knowing you’d get burnt out doesn’t make it easier to say goodbye. This isn’t the way I wanted us to part! The old me couldn’t help but put up some resistance—she always struggled with letting go. Once she lets go, she’ll embrace the unknown future with the kind of bold courage they make movies about! I found that girl. I’ve come to know and love her HERE amidst your depths and shallows and light and darkness. Maybe I love her because I learned to love all of you too. I wouldn’t change a thing.

— Joanne Minerbi

Tell me Echo Park: where can I find your last working pay phone? Maybe I can get an Angel on the line. We are a city of Angels en La Ciudad de Nuestra Senora de Los Angeles after all - you Echo Park are our sturdy and reliable Hermana - salt of the earth in a city and valley of diamonds and stars... Never dimmed.

— Richard Montoya

My Love for LA

My love for you starts from the moment I see the sunrise. I love you from the hard cold concrete of your streets that pounded on my feet the night I ran away. You've seen me grow, escape, cry, love, and flourish to this beautiful woman, I've become. You are as tough and beautiful as I am. I see myself in your typography. My heart beats with the waves of your beaches. I am as eclectic as your cities. My love grew in East LA , with the birth of my three children in a community filled with passion and activism. The streets covered with storytelling in glorious colors. That path took me to South Central, a city that beats with a rhythm like no other. People with loyalty, passion, hope, and respect. You grow to be tough and learn to respect in these streets. I now reside in the valley with the heat and diversity. Here I am with you. I breath you. When I'm away from you, I dream of you. I love you my LA!

— Maria Ramos, San Fernando Valley

Ode to LA

Oh LA, Palm Trees and oil rigs
White billowy clouds take shape in azure blue skies
White-foamed waves crash, dash and thrash
Green water in cloudy bays on darkened days
Old buildings, grey and cracked, darkening grimy walkways
Huge majestic fig trees forming a plaza of friendly shade
Pershing Square where The People dare
To impeach dodgy thinking and hoary thought
The Fairfax Farmers Market where old-school writers, in berets, strain to hear the muse
La Brea Tar Pits where a wall of Dire Wolf heads protest prediction, promise and pretense
Griffith Park where sidewalk becomes hiking trail, where P22 still gloriously stalks our imagination, where the Observatory highlights our pin point in the black ocean
LA, the city of dreams on an ocean of promise, shimmers in the haze of hope.

— Dave Marks, Yucca Valley

— Anne Ward, Westchester. Faded Photo. 1967. Oil on canvas.

Angelenos

It doesn’t come together
until one looks back,
and sees it from a great distance.

The azure blue sky
and ocean breeze
against the morning market
at 2nd and Arizona.

The electric buzz
of the neon-lined marquees
and jostling tribes
outside the theaters
lining Hollywood boulevard.

The exhilaration
of pressed hotel sheets
against bare skin,
and sable garters
hugging alabaster curves.

Only from afar
does the story become apparent.
A Dionysian playground
in asphalt and plate glass.
The joyful
and monstrous
grid of souls illuminated
by endless sunshine.

— Andrew West, Santa Monica

Mural of a house with the following letter painted on it: Dear LA, I love you. I hate you. I love you. I hate you.

— Spotted by Edward in Santa Monica

The 405

I love the 405 freeway! I’ve been using the 405 twice a week for two decades driving between the San Fernando Valley and my photojournalism classes at Santa Monica College.
I did not always love it. In the beginning it was a total frustration.
Why should it take so long to go such a short distance? WHY?!
It is like wrestling a 30 foot anaconda underwater!
As the years moved on, I began to see its rhythms, its flows, its slow beating pulse as the life blood of the city.
Frustration shifted to respect and finally landed on warm comfortable love. Dude! I found my mellow with the 405.
Without a shadow of a doubt, I am suffering from the Stockholm syndrome and am identifying with my captor.
When people badmouth it, I defend it. Hey, you just don’t understand its motivation. It’s trying, it really wants to get you where you want to go. But too many people just are not letting it.
Just find your lane and go with the flow. Be filled with a confidence that you are probably moving slightly faster than an Olympic gold medal marathon runner.
Which makes it so much better.

— Gerard Burkhart

Los Angeles, how I love you.

You’re a city like no other. There’s so much I cherish about you.

I grew up in the Valley, and those warm summer nights were always my favorite. As the sun sets, the air shifts, and we’d drive over Laurel Canyon and across Mulholland. There is nothing like the Hollywood Hills! From the top, you can see the whole city sprawled beneath you, lights twinkling like a million stars. Winding through those iconic roads, surrounded by the beauty of the canyon, it feels like you’re at the heart of something special.

Los Angeles, you’re a beautiful chaos—a blend of old and new, tradition and innovation, all wrapped into one vibrant package. I’ll never tire of you. In your crazy, warm, unpredictable way, you make every moment feel like an adventure.

— Sheryl Sexton, 64, Studio City

Dear Jefferson Park:

Thank you for being there for me. Your community comes together, to picnic, to read, to watch movies in the park, and gives me a sense of belonging. Your food is everywhere, easily accessible and open for people to walk in and try something new. Your neighbors are friendly and kind, offering ginger ale when my mom spends the entire night throwing up, sharing food over the fence, letting the kids play in your well-kept lawn. Your mobile vendors are amazing, providing snacks and food and candy and treats on a semi-regular basis. Your library is well-kept, with a wide variety of books and opportunities, easily used. Your parks are relatively clean, your public workout equipment functional and tidy, the people you pass on the street friendly. Your many nearby churches, synagogues, and mosques allow a huge collection of varying religions to safely practice without fear of judgement. I am so incredibly grateful to have lived here for years, and I hope to continue living here for years to come.

— Love, Anonymous, 17

Dear Los Angeles,

You've been my home for my whole life. My heart breaks every time I see footage of what we've all been through. But I am constantly inspired by the people. The people who help each other. To check in on each other. To feed each other. To talk to each other. To lift each other up. To rebuild together. And although this rebuild will go on for many years, I am confident that we will rebuild for everyone. To ensure that we are all taken care of. That we have a roof over our head. That we have food to eat. That we have communities that look out for each other and make sure that we all have what we need for future generations. And that together we will win.

— Carlos T. Navarrette

You are strong, gritty, elegant. Talented, scared, resilient. Empathetic to a fault and brilliant beyond measure. You are we; together free.

— Christina Hall

"Visual artist eternally grateful for LA and thank you KCRW"

— Carlos Romo Jr., Whittier

I love Santa Monica because it showed me all the different ways I could love...myself (at the Charmont -- my first solo apartment), my soon-to-be husband, Andrew (at our current home together -- The Fireplaces), fresh produce and friendly faces at the Farmer's Market, community at St. Monica's Church, providing serving survivors and working alongside those who inspire me at UCLA-Santa Monica Rape Treatment Center, long walks along Palisades Park, voting in-person at the Santa Monica Bay Women's Club and by mail in front of the Santa Monica Public Library, dozens of movies (the Aero and the AMC), meals alone and with loved ones (Ashland Hill, Bun + Mi, Cassia, Fritto Misto, Michael's, West 4th and Jane, just to name a few), and listening to KCRW and dancing into the wee hours at Summer Nights at HQ!

— Rio May del Rosario

Los Angeles is a place but also an idea. The idea, I believe, is to fuse the spectacle of mountains and an ocean, with human values and human ingenuity and human culture. What the city of angels does is to bring that fusion firmly joined, resplendent, and beautiful. I love you dear city and I salute your ongoing experiment in joining.

— Najeeb Shirwany, Irvine

Nine pictures created with crayon of scenes from around los Angeles: a freeway, baseball, the chinese theatre and the griffith observatory.

"My little sketch by no means reflects everything that's great about this city, but I tried to get my major loves in there""

— Gracie, Los Feliz

"Michelin stars.
We eat in our cars.
At 1 am, down go the bars."

— Jill Brown, Fairfax

¡Gracias Los Angeles!

You welcomed my parents with open arms.

Your beaches swelled their hearts with hope for their children.

Your mountains reminded them of their homeland but as the years passed, your hills became home.

To them, LA was America, the USA where they learned to say good morning to their neighbors in English and with a friendly nod to those that also came from afar.

Your palm trees swaying with the summer breeze planted their love for you.

They joined in cheer watching the Dodgers, LA Galaxy, and Lakers play. Tacos, pastrami sandwiches, and pizza became Friday night favorites.

They admired your courage and welcoming spirit.

Now, you hold their grandchildren and great grandchildren in your embrace.

— Patricia Restrepo, 58, Burbank

Edge of the world, this is where sweet-faced angels seek. Something sepia and paintbucket blue in the air. Like the precious succulent, the toughest survive and become beautiful.

Sharp frigid shadows, always return to a sun soaked joy. The light hits different. Realities are made here for the silver screen and so reality will be made here again.

An eternally changing many headed goddess, Los Angeles persists through the ghosts of her past, the winding freeways of her present, and the gilded promise of dreams in constant samsara. To love her is to love yourself. To love each other.

— Sarika Reddy

"Los Angeles with your clamor and chaos and creatures and yes, smells of Santee Alley. The grit and the grift and the glam of Hollywood, where I am lucky to love my apartment neighbors and know them all by name."

— Solana Rose Feldthouse, Hollywood/Sierra Madre

"Los Angeles, I love you for giving me the many languages of my life. I have learned that we all have voices, and I have sung and shouted and read aloud and protested on your streets and on your stages."

— Ivan Muñoz, 50, El Sereno

The canals bring a calm for any step in run or in a walk. Sure waters sit green, but there's a reflecting sheen that tells us what this city is meant to mean. A rawness is Venice. A truth. A grit. People the world over come to marvel, to visit—for a setting sun, to sit. Skaters smoke. Concrete shifts in paint from day to day. Those without work their wares as if it's all they've known. That's a fine life. Trying. Getting by. Takin' sunshine. That's the earthiness we may come to love (or hate) about Venice Beach. I'm 36 and lived there for five years. Five years that made me stronger. Five years of fun surf at the rocky breakwater. Where nights go calm and cool and waves kiss back and you're never alone. The town is all the good, bad, the ugly personified of this life. It's what makes us see clear harshness of our time. The vibrancy of what it all means—being alive.

— Vic

Los Angeles Love Letter

Lovers in gold will never stand the valiance of its necking madness.

A desert's heat, towered by concrete on trespassed land.

Dancing soil where angels weep great tears but once a year

Music persists, coexisting in bounties of vehicles

Exhausting under the burning metric stars.

It is easy to claim in disgust and beauty.

Yet to claim it as your own, is the most honorable task.

— Sabrina O'Reilly

"You opened yourself up to two immigrant lovers with nothing but chump change to their name to begin a life here. You gave them a spot on the map to start their home and their family. You gave my dad his first job as a canner in a factory and then eventually gave him another spot on the map to open up his first business. I love you because you gave him his first break and made his dreams come true."

— Susan Lee, Echo Park

"You are my city. You are my beating heart. When I think of you, I feel an overwhelming sense of pride and belonging. Like the sweet voice of Vin Scully playing in the background, I am here for you always, just as you have always been here for me."

— Carlos de la Torre

"Thank you for being a safe haven for our people—a place of acceptance, free from discrimination and hatred. A place of opportunity and family and full of culture. So much life, color, sounds, beauty all around. I grew up poor but I always felt rich running around your streets as a kid; no fears, just pure joy. I am grateful for those memories that I only hold with you, Altadena."

— Nathalia Carmen, Altadena

A collage of receipts, wrappers, show bracelets, tickets and other paper ephemera from Los Angeles.

"I was looking for a piece of paper to write my love letter on, and realized that all the little things I scrawl on the tickets, wrappers, napkins, and receipts from this city are love letters in their own way. This is a collage of some of the LA ephemera on which I've written notes, numbers, lists, and lyrics on, and together they're my love letter to LA.""

— Emma Lehman, 24, Highland Park

"There is a peaceful 10 seconds when you first wake and you have forgotten where you are. You plan, you imagine your life as it once was and then your stomach drops out and the pain hits, as you suddenly remember you have lost your home. Burnt to the ground.

— Linda Kennedy, Altadena

"My three-year-old asks me: did the slide at preschool burn? Did the screws on the slide burn? The plant in the pot next to the sink where we washed hands? My nap roll?"

— Kate Erickson, Altadena, Skyline Drive

"I love this beautiful city where people can be free to be whoever they are. I saw a woman in cat makeup as she rode her bike on the beach and I thought, 'if you want to be a cat, you be a cat.'"

— Rachel Citron, Palms

"I grew up a staunch Northern Californian with all the disdain for SoCal that entails. But then I came here to attend film school at USC and I found my home. A city where I can eat the best Thai food outside Thailand, go for a hike at Fryman Canyon after dropping my son off at school, hear music at Disney Hall, see great art all over town, go to the best movie theaters in the world, and live a life full of diversity of all kinds. I met my husband and my dearest friends here, had my son here, and found a neighborhood and built a community that I cherish. We will come back from this devastation like we cam back from Northridge and everything else that's come our way. Viva Los Angeles!"

— Suju Vijayan, Sherman Oaks

"LA you have been home since I was in the womb
a valley girl from the start
I'd walk down the streets of north Hollywood
Pizza from dales jr
Get high up Mulholland drive
Complain about how I couldn't wait to one day leave"

— Lotem Porat

My Dear LA,

Born into your waiting arms, you were always my third parent—shaping me as much as the ones who raised me. You gave me my first taste of independence, my first infatuation with natural beauty, and my lifelong draw to creativity. Every day, you whispered that anything could happen, instilling in me a relentless pursuit of possibility. Your extraordinary ethnic diversity—woven into our food, language, neighborhoods, music, and festivals—seeped into my marrow. Your contrast of brazenness and exquisite, ancient Western-ness flowing in tar, sand, and mud beneath the surface fueled me from the start. In the aftermath of the fires, as neighbors across the street and from throughout the city rushed to help one another, I was reminded of the 1994 earthquake. My family was in the final stages of buying a home in Miracle Mile, and as we went to check its condition, we found our soon-to-be neighbors sweeping up each other’s fallen chimneys and shattered windows, rolling out barbecues in the middle of January to cook and share food from their powerless freezers. It hit me like an aftershock of goodness—Angelenos show up—for each other and for the city we share. I love you, LA. And dear Lady of Angels, there isn’t another place on Earth where I would have rather been born.

— Marina Muhlfriedel

"Give me a city built on dreams any day. Give me a place full of dreamers, of people who, when thwarted and brought to the brink will be able to, somehow, find a way back. Give me this place, this Los Angeles I know."

— Sharat Raju, Venice

"LA is my soulmate—
she makes room for every version of me,
as I embrace every version of her,
led by the angels,
we make it through the flames,
intact, together."

— Melody Godfred, Brentwood

Two Haikus

Did you pack enough
love into your go bag for
four million people?

Dear Unfair Wolf Moon:
Did childhood evacuate
before the fires won?

— Jolia Sidona Allen, 52, Playa Vista

"We kids of the Mighty Mighty Preschool would climb to the top of the metal rocket ship or swing until we grew dizzy. We learned our letters and how to be kind from the curly-haired teacher we all called Junie Bug. It was the ‘70s and so we sang a lot. There was always a tambourine."

— Erica Jacobs Green, 52, Pacific Palisades (El Medio bluffs)

A multipanel drawing in simple strokes that reads: The metro is its own neighborhood tying my geographically disparite identities, the serendipitous joy of running into a friend on the train, or the moment the gold line turns to overpass the freeway interchange, giving the best view of how downtown glitters and you forget how bumpy and abrupt the ride can be. There's a lot you could hate aobut it, of course, but that doesn't get you where you're going.

— Tori Holder, 33, Miracle Mile

"What a strange and magical hill! Winding bumpy one lane dirt roads, minutes from Downtown?! Paper streets, tumble weeds the size of cars. Coyotes, hawks, owls, horses, goats, snakes, and bats live here. Sweeping 360 degree views."

— Celeste Gasperik, 37, Rose Hill/Paradise Hill

On a background with a yellow to orange graident, the words Los Angeles our paradise are printed at the top. Then there are a couple hundred stars in the middle and at the bottom it says so far from heaven

"I did a project this past summer for a show at BozoMag that is literally my love letter(s) to LA. A series of 9 posters inspired by old Colby posters installed on telephone poles around the city as well as the gallery. Some specific, some personal, one sadly prophetic.""

— Jonathan Casella

"Passing under the California incline, I leaned my head out the rental car window to let my eyes better drink it in. Of course, I did not yet know that all that overflow of green was a seasonal garment on a landscape that is more often than not dusty and brown."

— Anna Anderson, 42, Glendale

LA is a tiger,

Hard to wrestle to the ground.

It prances, bats me between paws,

Then turns its head and eats catnip.

But the colors! I cannot avert my eyes.

From the cat tongue pink and saber tooth yellow.

I cry when it walks into the smoke,

And its stripes blend with flames and ashes.

— Martina Blumenthal, 46, Palms

"To the old stories that you will save and the new stories you will make from the ash. Your voice is unbreakable, an incombustible vault. Your memory is made of cold steel."

— Anne Carmack, Santa Monica

"No one loves their city like we love LA. That's what other people don't get. It's not only about the loss of a house, it's the devastation of our home. Because LA has been and always will be, a city of dreams, the first of which is to live there in the first place. And now many of those dreams are ash in the Santa Ana winds."

— Polly Walter

"This is a photo from Echo Park, which is one of my favorite spots to visit. Thank you, KCRW!"

— Naomi Montelongo, 54, Echo Park

"There are many amazing cities on this planet, but you are special. What you offer goes beyond the iconic hills, ocean sunsets and colorful wildflowers. You offer hope. You offer humanity. You offer a dream, a colorful life and a collection of people who refuse to quit. A life that is made infinitely better by every unique neighborhood and every individual that makes your heart beat."

— Emily Devine, 37, Hawthorne

Drawn image of a womean hugging los angeles. Her hair is made out of stars and her legs are decorated with tatoos of california wildflowers. Text on the image reads: My dear LA, One day tou greeted us with your open arms. To make us call you home. Today we embrace to heal. Tomorrow we'll regrow.

— Maria & Gilda, Mt. Washington

"Countless memories stitched together of a place, a world that is/was/no longer is/but always will be."

— Brittany Saake Gonzalez

"I don't even remember my friendship with the tree starting... but an understanding was always there."

— Daisy Green

"Closing my eyes, I keep traveling in my mind along every curve of the canyon and traveling west along Sunset to PCH. In my mind, nothing has changed, but we know all has now forever changed. Miraculously, the Palisades Self Realization Center survived the flames. The meditation chapel, where my parents exchanged their vows in 1965, is untouched."

— Priya Bahl, 49, Palisades

"Los Angeles, you are no stranger to reinvention. You've been shaped by fires before—both literal and metaphorical. You've burned and rebuilt, broken and healed, faltered and stood back up. This fire will leave its scars, but it will not take away your spirit. It cannot touch your sunsets, painted in impossible hues over the Pacific. It cannot erase the hum of your streets, the music of your many languages, or the soul of the millions who call you home."

— Eric Espinosa, Pasadena

"LA is falling in love with jacarandas and being in awe of rain. LA is hating on LAX and wishfully hoping that Burbank adds more direct flights while remaining its small, charming self. LA is taking your out-of-town friends and family on a walk through the Venice canals and stopping by Gjelina's for a pizza followed by a nightcap at The Brig."

— Michelle Ramin, Boyle Heights

Los Angeles: Insatiable amounts of hope and desire; Sunshine and bravado; Wonder; Ambition layered on every surface; Pooling into a hot hazy basin; Concrete rivers; Alleyways of disgrace; Shopping carts far from home; Boulevards; Swimming pools; Spaghetti strap roads stamped on the sides of canyons; Palm trees trying to fit in and play their part; Smokey skies and wellness; Gaussian blur on every horizon; Waking up sticky; Mountains and valleys begging for sea breezes; That will only flirt from a distance; Helicopters; Sprinklers; Stucco; Terracotta and Spanish arches; Rooftops from Lautner and Frank Lloyd Wright; Next to Snow White and other childhood fantasies; Stars smudged from the sky but secretly scattered in the hills; Tales of traffic; A magical web of freeways; Like string holding together broken furniture; Hummingbirds; Dust; Freedom; Miracles laying in wait; Coyotes in the woods listening to concerts; Poinsettia showing off like candy; Patinaed walls stained with Old Hollywood and ivy; Days lived out awash with hunger and curiosity; Trying not to break under the pressure to be God; Every door has a secret; Every rooftop has a promise; A red umbrella ascends the hills; In a rare moment of vulnerability from the sky; All the colors; All the dreams; I'm not crying, there's dust in my eyes

— Tracey Henton, 56, Los Feliz

"Saturdays were spent watching double features at the old Bay Theater; Yellow Submarine, Mash, Chinatown, always with Felix the Cat or Dudley Do Right cartoons as openers. Lurch was often seen in front of you buying a ticket, or Mel Brooks would be sitting behind you laughing uproariously at his movie, 12 Chairs."

— Maryclaire Sweeters Buchanan, Palisades

A Chinese style decorative gate tipped in bright yellow and green lights; photographed at dusk

— Sofia T. Alvarez

"I've heard people say that while in Switzerland, no matter which direction you point your camera, you cannot help but capture beauty. I have not heard this said of Los Angeles. Yet beauty finds me everywhere in my city of angels. This beauty includes a grittiness, granted, particularly in today's 90-degree weather. Dry, dusty grasses and sages smell like California."

— Heidi Harmon, 59, Westchester

"Los Angeles, oh, Los Angeles!!! The whisper of possibility carried the Santa Ana winds. A symphony of cultures dancing beneath your endless sky. Your bountiful love found in the kindness of strangers, the warmth of golden hour-light. In your hidden pockets, creativity spills over like laughter, blooming in murals, melodies, and midnight musings beneath city lights. You instill hope, an electricity that charges our spirits, a reminder that reinvention is not only welcome but inevitable. The rhythm you carry that never stops dreaming. And in the deepest chambers of my heart, you will always be home."

— Michelle Tanjuaquio, 41, Eagle Rock

"LA you have let me be myself, always welcoming and never judging. I love your endless parties and limitless possibilities. We have shared many crazy adventures you and I. I hope they never end."

— Danny Lasdow, 55, Redondo Beach

"The unstoppable drive that is inherent in Los Angeles doesn't come from its freeways, its boundless horizons or magical hillsides and slices of endless ocean, but from us, each and every one of us. So dream big LA, continue to dream big everyone!"

— Grazia Caroselli, Culver City

The first time we met wasn't very long ago, but as soon as we did you enveloped me in beams of light no other could. Luminosity so intense it ignited my soul and exhumed a sleepy life force in me. You gently kissed me with nostalgia, you hugged me with your exuberance and had me hooked on you since day one. Little did we know this light had ignited a flame too colossal to contain it. It hurt you... but wow it was like purification. You are the free bird of flames waiting to be reborn again like a phoenix rising from ashes. A new chapter awaits for my beloved, one that involves healing and revitalized strength. You will emerge from these challenges phenomenally stronger than ever. I miss you and I love you LA. Love, Kiki Ohara

— Kiki Ohara

"LA! Balmy winds, watercolor sunsets, undulating waves. Your splendor deceived, burnt from the inside. Even your detritus, deceptions; multitudes gripped by fear, loneliness, greed, offer beauty. You cradle possibility in succulent canyon hands, sage scents. In your sleepy sister, Catalina. You welcome all, even as you spurn some seeking fortune. Fickle but amorous are you, LA."

— Diane Solomon

"Growing up in Mid-City was nothing short of magic. My world was painted with the colors of my Jamaican neighbors, Ethiopian friends, Korean classmates, and Oaxacan families. There was no hate, only laughter and play. I thought the whole world was like this—a mosaic of cultures coexisting in harmony."

— Marilyn Rivas

"Two bags, one-way flight,

Midwest girl meets sun and streets -

Dreams and roots converge."

— Shana Brewer, 42, Lincoln Heights

"Los Angeles sightly and slightly singed but undeterred in swagger and grit. Wildfires can always be doused and the true inextinguishable inferno is within our bellies as our city shrugs and sloughs off the soot showing what real Angelenos are made of: resilience."

— Tommy Vinh Bui, 39, Pacoima

"You feel small, Los Angeles. We will drive miles and miles in traffic through your streets and on your highways (that we complain about — god, the traffic sucks tonight! I'll be there soon!) to visit one another, to shop in your different neighborhoods, to revel in the beauty of the Palisades, or the ocean below, and to hike on the trails in Altadena and Eaton Canyon."

— Elizabeth Aquino, 61, Hancock Park

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