New Orleans, a Caribbean nation

It struck me today that New Orleans, and to a lesser extent Louisiana, is not really an American state, but much more similar to a Caribbean nation or Central America in a number of ways. I say New Orleans because it's very different from northern Louisiana which is more like Georgia and other Deep South states. I'm sure the scenes of New Orleans during Katrina reminded everyone of third-world disasters, but there's more than that.

#1- Culturally, New Orleans is a lot more like the Caribbean. I think it's the only area in the United States that is predominantly Catholic from inception. NYC/Boston have a lot of Catholicism but that has been mostly imported with the Irish/Italians. New Orleans also descends from the Spanish/French aka Latin-heritage than then Anglo-German of most of the country. Hence the name Louisiana, the french-names, etc. In a very insignificant thing, there is a lot more wine/liquor advertising than beer here. (Latin v. German/Anglo culture) Not to mention the incredible race-mixture here, blacks, whites, creoles, cajuns, hispanic people, etc. Much more like the Dominican Republic.

#2- Politically, we have a weird runoff system more close to Caribbean nations instead of typical primaries/caucuses, actually something I really like. Then there's the fact we don't use English common law and the fact that we have a creole political elite, a huge similarity. There's the fact that we have parishes instead of counties, etc.

#3- Economically, we are one of the poorest cities in the poorest state in America. It's kind of funny, the only reason we went from dead last to 41st in the last year is because of the exodus of people, so more per capita GDP for everyone left. The US GDP per capita is $43,000. The GDP per capita is $17,000 in New Orleans, around the Bahamas, Mexico, Puerto Rico, Costa Rica, and slightly above the Dominican Republic, etc. The inequality in wealth here is much more like Caribbean/Central American nations, it's huge.

Some other things-
there is a lot of corruption in politics and the police similar to Central America/Caribbean nations. No one really trusts the government to do anything but are resigned to the status quo. The police are notoriously bad- they take bribes, arrest at will, illegally confiscate weapons, etc. Their attitude is arrest now, let the judicial process (which is awful) deal with it later. My roommate is a good case. He was arrested on some stupid charge, public disturbance or something for arguing with a cop during Mardi Gras, sent to jail for a day (not pleasant during Mardi Gras) went to court and his charge was dismissed on the first day (although it took 2 months to get to court) The lesson? Don't mess with the police or they will put you through annoying unnecessarily-wrong processes and get away with it.

Lastly, the French quarter reminds me eerily of Caribbean nations tourist spots. In the French Quarter as in tourist-nations such as Jamaica, Puerto Rico, Bermuda and many others, it is pleasant and crime-free in the touristy areas, but once you leave that area, it's a whole different world. Police presence in the French Quarter is very high, there's few crimes at all in there. But outside of there, Central City, New Orleans East, are what has made us the most violent city in America with the highest murder rate.