Opinion of New Orleans, Louisiana

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Decidedly mixed, I say as a native. It’s got the best food in the country, even just in terms of variety, and I’ll fight anyone who disagrees. Sadly there are so many structural issues beyond that — exacerbated in no small part by Hurricane Katrina in 2005 — that nobody seems particularly interested in fixing, or able to fix. That some parts of the city have become/are becoming gentrified hipster havens, with no real sense of the industrial or port history of the area, (and the same generic noise rock bands popping up everywhere) only dilutes the cultural cachet that people move here for in the first place. Little things like Mr. Bingle are just as important to the overall culture as jazz, but these are getting lost as the years go by and a combo of transplants and faceless corps come in. (Not that the latter really can expand the city in any meaningful way, because of geography.)

Couple that with rising insurance rates across the board, a state government that seems to have only culture wars on its mind, and climate change, and I’m not sure how much longer I want to live here.