My love note: There are so many things I love about this City — Center City Pretzels, Belmont Plateau, The Whispering Benches near Memorial Hall — it was hard for me to pick one. I came to realize the thing that brings me the most day-to-day happiness is Philly’s stoop culture. I live on a little street connected to other little streets and hanging out on the stoop with neighbors is an almost daily occurrence in the warm weather months.

I’ve lived on my block for 13 years and I have sat on my next-door neighbor’s stoop and watched little kids grow into teenagers. I’ve watched the process of kids learning to yell “CAR!” when a car is coming and then teaching it to the little kids when they have grown up into big kids.

Nearly all of my neighbors know each other and we have spent countless hours talking, laughing, eating and drinking on the stoop. We’ve played Rock Band and watched movies and Phillies games projected onto a wall at night. We’ve wheeled out BBQs and pulled chairs into the street for spontaneous block parties. Last Halloween we cooked and handed out S’mores to trick-or-treaters. And for our 6 year old’s birthday we closed down the block and turned it into a homemade sprayground.

Recently me, the wife and the kid went on our first family vacation in years. The day after driving back from our roadtrip I hung out with neighbors on the Stoop and it felt like the best day of vacation. It made me realize how incredibly lucky we are to live on this great block in a great neighborhood in this town I absolutely love.