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If we use the strictest definition of the South (excluding Northern Virginia, Maryland, DC ,South Florida, and Texas) then New Orleans (the city itself at least) would be the most different place in the South.
There are still traditional Southern elements within the city especially the architecture of the Garden District. Politically, the New Orleans metro area outside the city itself is rather conservative (especially places like Metairie, Covington, and Chalmette) too which is more characteristic of the South. (in the Northeast suburban areas also tend to be liberal).
If you look at the Garden District alone it would be somewhat similar to Charleston SC or Savannah GA. Savannah is also known for its nighttime, drinking culture and more permissive social mores though not to the extent of New Orleans. The kind of quarkiness you see in New Orleans though is very rare in the rest of the South, the only other place I can think of would be Key West but then again whether South Florida is the South is debatable. I know some people from places like Portland, Seattle and New Jersey who say New Orleans is the only place in the south they could imagine living.
And whenever I'm in NO I run into quite a few people who I think would feel much more at home in Venice Beach than in Covington.
I guess it's that time of year for New Orleans fandom again, multiple New Orleans threads active at once, people swearing New Orleans is a cut above anywhere else in the South...
New Orleans is probably one of the most unique places in the South, and in the country, but I have seriously problems proclaiming it's the most unique place in the South. For starters, can we try to define what qualifiers are necessary to be deemed "unique" by the resident City-Data groupthink brain trust?
There are more than a couple places in the South--which is the largest region of the United States--that are very unique from their immediate regions and/or states. That New Orleans and Miami are 98% of people's answers in here is more telling of respondents lack of knowledge of other "unique" places in the South...
About those qualifiers, though, I seriously need some answers...
I guess it's that time of year for New Orleans fandom again, multiple New Orleans threads active at once, people swearing New Orleans is a cut above anywhere else in the South...
New Orleans is probably one of the most unique places in the South, and in the country, but I have seriously problems proclaiming it's the most unique place in the South. For starters, can we try to define what qualifiers are necessary to be deemed "unique" by the resident City-Data groupthink brain trust?
There are more than a couple places in the South--which is the largest region of the United States--that are very unique from their immediate regions and/or states. That New Orleans and Miami are 98% of people's answers in here is more telling of respondents lack of knowledge of other "unique" places in the South...
About those qualifiers, though, I seriously need some answers...
I was born and raised in the South (in the New Orleans suburbs actually) and the South is the part of the country I've traveled most extensively in. And yes these two places are the ones that are the most uniquely different. Yes there are other places that stand out like Asheville, North Carolina and other very beautiful places like the Outer Banks, East Tennessee, Cajun country around Lafayette, etc and West Virginia is also quite special but none of these are still quite as "different" culturally and vibewise as these two places or linguistically and culturally as different as Miami.
Miami along with places on the border like Laredo and El Paso feel more foreign than American.
I would say Greenville SC is unique with a 30 foot waterfall adjacent to its main street, and a massive pedestrian bridge over it. There are also a lot of fountains and man-made waterfalls in downtown, and more trees in the CBD than I typically see in downtown areas.
Didn't read through the whole thread, but I am a bit surprised that people would mention Miami as being unique. To me, all major cities in Florida look similar, with Miami simply being a bigger, coastal version of Orlando for instance; a bigger Orlando with a beach.
I grew up in the Miami metro area and would agree it's quite unique for the South and in the US for that matter. It's architecture, topography and cultural diversity isn't replicated anywhere else and to call it a "bigger Orlando with a beach" beyond a "diss" expresses unfamiliarity with Miami in general, and almost sounds like something one would pick up in this forum in lieu of actually visiting. Orlando is one of the blandest cities in the South with little in the way of character other than a lake with a fountain in the center of it, which is hardly a symbol of uniqueness seen far and wide.
I was born and raised in the South (in the New Orleans suburbs actually) and the South is the part of the country I've traveled most extensively in. And yes these two places are the ones that are the most uniquely different. Yes there are other places that stand out like Asheville, North Carolina and other very beautiful places like the Outer Banks, East Tennessee, Cajun country around Lafayette, etc and West Virginia is also quite special but none of these are still quite as "different" culturally and vibewise as these two places or linguistically and culturally as different as Miami.
Miami along with places on the border like Laredo and El Paso feel more foreign than American.
Okay...so culturally and vibewise, what is unique about New Orleans? Charleston is culturally different from the Carolinas and Georgia, and has a very distinct local culture. Outside of its very immediate Lowcountry region, there is nothing or nowhere like Charleston. So just to play devil's advocate, why is New Orleans so far and away more unique than Charleston, to just use one city as an example?
Excellent points, Bourbon Street really feels like a crazier version of Duvall Street and you have the old cemeteries too and the large collection of eccentric and quirky people.
Savannah is also known for its nightlife but overall the city is smaller and much cleaner than New Orleans. Several people have compared New Orleans to Baltimore in terms of its majority black population, hip hop culture, serious issues of urban decay and violent crime and highly dysfunctional city government including terrible public schools and official corruption. Also in both places you have something where many suburbanites identify with the city in terms of culture and take pride in it but at the same time like to avoid the city and even "hate" the city itself due to these inner city issues. Though having lived in both areas I would have to say that Baltimore is a far worse city. New Orleans is maybe 50% ghetto with a lot of nice, safe, very classy areas while Baltimore is more like 75% ghetto and truly feels like a Third World war zone in many parts.
Memphis is similar sized with New Orleans and also its known for its musical culture and is another river city on the Mississippi, and also deals with the same issues with its crime rate and inner city problems.
I want to use your quote from another thread to think about the OP question this way: the most unique place in the South would be the city/ies that share the fewest similarities with anyplace else...
Though I've always heard that New Orleans is its own thing, there isn't a shortage of places I've heard that are comparable to New Orleans in some respect: Memphis, Mobile, Savannah, St. Augustine, etc...
Using the top two cities mentioned here, I have the impression that Miami would stand ahead in "unique-ness", as I've heard fewer places compared as "like" Miami...
I was born and raised in the South (in the New Orleans suburbs actually) and the South is the part of the country I've traveled most extensively in. And yes these two places are the ones that are the most uniquely different. Yes there are other places that stand out like Asheville, North Carolina and other very beautiful places like the Outer Banks, East Tennessee, Cajun country around Lafayette, etc and West Virginia is also quite special but none of these are still quite as "different" culturally and vibewise as these two places or linguistically and culturally as different as Miami.
Miami along with places on the border like Laredo and El Paso feel more foreign than American.
I want to use your quote from another thread to think about the OP question this way: the most unique place in the South would be the city/ies that share the fewest similarities with anyplace else...
Though I've always heard that New Orleans is its own thing, there isn't a shortage of places I've heard that are comparable to New Orleans in some respect: Memphis, Mobile, Savannah, St. Augustine, etc...
Using the top two cities mentioned here, I have the impression that Miami would stand ahead in "unique-ness", as I've heard fewer places compared as "like" Miami...
I don't consider Miami to be a Southern city at all. Culturally it is a foreign city in America, with a lot of New York and New Jersey influence.
New Orleans's unique comes in its mix of cultures, various aspects of it may be similar to elsewhere but no other place has the entire package. Also in terms of things unique to New Orleans.....
- the jazz and brass bands and its special musical heritage
- the homegrown Creole cuisine (separate from Cajun) that's not the same as traditional Southern cuisine, the French historical influence mixed with the Old South (where else can you get things like Oysters Rockefeller, gumbo, mufaletta sandwiches, etc )
- its dialect is very unique
- the bands playing at funeral processions, the above ground cemeteries
- the very unique architecture of areas like the French Quarter, and the shotgun houses which are found nowhere else in America
- the Catholic influence while the majority of the South isn't Catholic, very few American cities have a Catholic cathedral as one of its main landmarks
- New Orleans is also the only place in the South to have a lot of European immigration in the 1800s and early 1900s while the rest of the South didn't see much immigration into the second half of the 20th century
You've obviously never been to New Orleans before.
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