The Most Important Thing You Will Learn in New Orleans

One of the biggest things I love about New Orleans is that it’s driven by relationships.

One of the biggest things I hate about New York City is that it’s driven by money.

When I lived in NYC, everyone was obsessed with money: having it, not having it, wanting it, spending too much of it.

And in New Orleans? We’re obsessed with one another—talking to each other, having coffee with one each other, saying hi to each other, recognizing each other in our really random Mardi gras costumes. The priority here is people first, music second, and somewhere down that long list of food and festivals, money, because we need money to have languorous lunches to obsess about one another at.

Maybe that’s why we're so laid back in the Big Easy: we know the most important thing in life is the people you care about.

Maybe that’s why visitors come and never leave: because community springs up everywhere.