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New Orleans, with its history and culture imprint upon America, from Jazz to Cajun food and Zydeco, exhibits a much stronger influence than its population suggests.
Other possibilities include Memphis, Nashville, or Austin.
New Orleans has nothing to do with Cajun culture. It is NOT A CAJUN CITY.
Going back and reading the criteria, how come nobody has mentioned Branson yet?
And Provincetown and Gatlinburg and Key West and even Wall, South Dakota, which sure pulls a lot of weight per capita. And Luckenbach, Texas, which pulls a lot of weight for its size, considering its population is zero.
Key West, Branson, Myrtle Beach, etc do offer a lot considering their small residential population but they are tourist/resort towns and function as such. I wouldn't really put them in the same category as regular cities like New Orleans, Charlotte, or Las Vegas.
The OP named several of the best choices in the first post.
New Orleans: for me this is probably the "pound for pound" champion. Just so much history and culture for a metro area of under 1.3 million. The music, food, and architecture in the city are outstanding.
Austin and Nashville are both under 2 million and are well known capital cities with great music scenes. Austin also has an impressive tech/startup industry.
Economically Charlotte does punch above its weight, although when it comes to the history and cultural categories it isn't as impressive.
San Jose is impressive on its own, but I generally count it with the larger Bay area.
To list some much smaller places, Charleston, Savannah, and Key West all have reputations far larger than their sizes.
Above weight: San Francisco, Washington DC, Boston, Seattle, Denver
At weight: Chicago, Atlanta, Dallas, Houston, Miami, Los Angeles, New York, Philadelphia
Below weight: Tampa, Phoenix, Detroit, Orlando
A case can be made for Memphis culturally because of the music history there but outside of that I would say it performs BELOW its peers.
Memphis's closest regional peers would be OKC, Richmond, Louisville, Birmingham, New Orleans, and Jacksonville. Overall I'd put it somewhere in the middle of the pack.
All 3 have huge metro areas and very important historical roles. Just because they have small city propers doesnt mean they are small by any means.
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