Never been to New Orleans so I won't say anything first person...
But this is an easy call from an outsider's perspective...
Nola's claim to fame is its unique local culture that is a combination of cuisine, dialect, and entertainment (festivals, nightlife, and the like)...
One thing that traveling this country has taught me, is that
every city with any reasonable size has some unique flavor, and even many small cities, towns, and places have unique local customs. New Orleans rise to prominence was as one of the biggest cities of the 19th century, and one of the earliest immigration destinations of the early colonized US...
It is a legacy city, all cities that were popular pre-1900 have a level of branding that comes from their early relevance in history that cities that rose later don't have...
Without ever having been to NO, I doubt I'd view as "the" most unique city I've seen because I don't think there is a "the" most unique place. Everywhere is unique abs special to its location and entertainment, local food traditions and regional dialect aren't unique in and of themselves, these things vary everywhere...
New Orleans is not really a "big city" by any objective metric but is the biggest city in its state---->it's also the biggest city going east until you reach Atlanta, and the biggest city going north until you hit St Louis. Going west you run into the influence of the big Texas cities pretty quickly, but just think of the impact being the largest city for multiple states around, going north and east, has on the perception of New Orleans as a place...
It wouldn't have this advantage in California or most other states, and you wanna know an indicator that I'm right about this? Mardi Gras is a European holiday, and it's origin as a celebration domestically was in the significantly smaller Mobile, Alabama...
But whose Mardi Gras do you hear get front page news annually, generation after generation? It ain't the European ones nor the Mobile one...
New Orleans is a big fish in a small pond. I dont think it would be irrelevant in a state with larger cities, but that big fish in a small pond helps its branding tremendously and always has. Because on its own, nightlife and entertainment and regional speech and regional food isn't something New Orleans has the market cornered on...
I'm not a fan of San Francisco because of the willful erasure of black history in that city, among other things, but it's a substantially bigger city than Nola with all the ingredients people laud Nola for...
And while Sacramento doesn't have the branding or historical impact New Orleans has, it has those ingredients as well. nikkas not knowing about Sacramento's culture is one thing, but it certainly exists and if Sacramento were in Louisiana it's brand would be larger period...
both he and Lou Will are wrong...
Your boy is from The Bay. Yall don't understand it even though I've said it for years because yall not from out here; but Coastal Californians are the worst people to base your opinion of Sacramento from. These people are from the largest, most people-diverse, most ecologically diverse state in North America. These mf's are spoiled and don't realize it, the spoils of growing up in Coastal California...
Sac draws strong opinions on here but I've yet to meet any native eastern era or southerner in real life, who has been to Sac, who calls it "wack". Never seen it, keep in mind I've lived and been all up and down the east Coast. I'm 34, over the years I've met a decent number of people who have been to Sac for one reason or other...
I've met eastern/southern people who "prefer" other Cali cities, hell it's no secret that I prefer LA myself. But in my real actual life, I'm a well-traveled man, domestically anyway, I have not met ONE person who called Sacramento "wack" upon actually visiting themselves, and the vast majority thoroughly enjoyed themselves...
I wouldn't dar take the word of a transplanted Coastal Californian...