NO EVENT WITHIN the past year jolted our city more than the cold-blooded killings of four police officers in a Lakewood coffee shop early Sunday morning on Thanksgiving weekend. As dark a moment as it was, the murders also brought us together. For 43 scary hours, anyone who lived between Fort Lewis and Everett was gripped by the round-the-clock news coverage of a manhunt full of promising tips and near misses. One media organization in particular, our locally owned daily newspaper The Seattle Times, deployed dozens of print and online reporters and photographers and support staff, whose team effort provided us with a stunningly comprehensive, minute-by-minute account alongside in-depth information about the suspect and his victims. The story of how the Times won the Pulitzer Prize for breaking news reporting, told by James Ross Gardner in this issue, is but one of the many reasons we found to love this city.

I don’t think it’s a coincidence that, as we compiled our list, we found plenty more striking examples of the things that connect us. Yes, we name innovative restaurants and arts groups and trendsetters that make us all proud. But beyond that (and contrary to certain cliches about chilly Seattleites), we cite far more instances where people collaborate and share and give back. New Guard dinners, for example, are parties with a purpose: They nurture up-and-coming talents in art, food, and music. Our seminal grunge rockers Soundgarden launched their reunion tour right here at home with a special concert for longtime fans. Our richest citizens are promoting a tax on themselves for the good of us all. Hundreds of flash mobbers “spontaneously” start dancing in the middle of Westlake Center.

We figured there was no better way to capture the collective spirit displayed in this month’s issue than to tap that flash mob energy for the cover of the magazine. Thanks to Egan Orion, whose Facebook post invited Seattleites to make flash mob history, hundreds of red-clad people turned up in Gas Works Park on a soggy Sunday afternoon in June. By some miracle, Seattle Met art director Benjamen Purvis “just happened” to have commissioned a photographer, Will Austin, who was flying overhead in a helicopter and caught on camera a huge group of happy, smiling, waving Seattleites morphing into the shape of a giant heart. What’s not to love.