Philadelphia and Kansas City played Sunday in Super Bowl LIX — well, at least Philadelphia did — but the aura surrounding the game was all about New Orleans and Los Angeles.
The Big Easy gave everyone the perfect where: the Superdome, Bourbon Street, big bands, beads, parades and music for miles. The why was for Los Angeles, a response to last month’s devastating wind and fire that burned nearly 100 square miles, upending hundreds of thousands of lives in just a few short weeks. There was the pregame show parade of stars long associated with Hollywood, from Brad Pitt to Tom Cruise; in the stands were folks like Paul Rudd and Anne Hathaway. And then Compton’s own, Pulitzer Prize-winning Kendrick Lamar strode onstage for the halftime show, finishing with his recent Grammy-winning song “Not Like Us.”
New Orleans’ message for Lamar and all of L.A. was clear: You can be just like us.
Nearly two decades have passed since Hurricane Katrina tore through New Orleans in August 2005, when devastating wind and water overwhelmed the city. The Superdome itself, New Orleans’ “living room,” was battered but still provided shelter to more than 10,000 people unable to get out ahead of the storm.
Well before Katrina, Tennessee Williams supposedly once joked that New Orleans was one of “only three cities” in America, and “everything else is Cleveland.” After Katrina, could the city come back?
It has. Maybe not exactly the same. Maybe not entirely intact. But the essence, the soul of the city, it’s still there — the good times roll once again. Laissez les bon temps rouler. And the soul of the city is not hard to find. Just talk to a local for five minutes.
Like my friend’s Aunt Betsy. While visiting New Orleans recently, at brunch I sat next to her. She’s lived her life in New Orleans and wouldn’t have it any other way. She made a case for the food, saying that elsewhere people just “eat to live,” but in New Orleans they “live to eat.”
Come on, I thought. A friend joked to me that New Orleans is “either the best-run city in the Caribbean, or the worst-run city in America.” There are graffiti and potholes, and blue tarps on lots of houses. I saw a cat-sized dead rat.
But even Katrina couldn’t kill the culture. It’s disaster resistant. It grew back, and will always grow back, which is why this city’s message is exactly what Los Angeles needs to hear right now.
The soul of New Orleans is still essentially oral. They’ve got so many good words. Faubourg. Hubig’s. Neutral ground. Rougarou. CheeWees. Bourbon Street gravy. Po’boy (dressed). Fleur-de-lis. Sazerac. Krewe. Tchoupitoulas. (Warning: Some might cause a ChatGPT meltdown.)
They even fight over how to pronounce the darn city’s name. Some pitch down the middle with “New Or-LEENS.” A few gussy it up with a “New Or-LEE-ANNS.” Others dirty it down with “Nawlins.” Some might find that off-putting, but I think it’s great. It shows they care.
Some New Orleanians may be rich, but money doesn’t matter much here. The peasants eat like kings. Cafe Du Monde: open 24 hours a day for beignets, cash only. Parkway for po’boys, especially the roast beef. Turkey and the Wolf sells the best Reuben sandwich in America (and it’s meatless, made with collard greens). Or Hansen’s Sno-Bliz for a hot day, 86 years running — so you can “air condition your tummy.” All those rough-cut delicacies will set you back less than a ten-spot.
Culture is for everyone. Music and menu-making are mass-spread contagion activities that transmit culture. Welcome the world by doing something nowhere else does.
And heart is the cherry on top of it all. On the way out of town, Aunt Betsy went out of her way to drop off an enormous tin of pralines (“PRAW-leens,” by the way, definitely not “PRAY-leens”). It was that last little touch. The warmth. The kindness. Or was it a little bit of a sales pitch for her beloved city? I can’t say, but the pralines are gone and I’m very, very happy.
So what can LA offer to L.A.? What can the swamp teach the beach? What can the City of Saints tell the City of Angels after last month’s devastating fires?
You can’t keep a good city down. You’ll be back up, and soon. And whatever makes L.A. one of a kind, lean in to that.
From New Orleans to Los Angeles: You can be just like us.
ML Cavanaugh is the author of the forthcoming book “Best Scar Wins: How You Can Be More Than You Were Before.” @MLCavanaugh
