This Is THE Place to “Crunch Out”
And I Can’t Wait To Be Back
I just got back from a visit to the city where everyone seems to fully embody their own personality.
But attention! Not in a New York City kind of way.
While NYC dazzles with its diverse and sharp expressions of individuality, in ‘the city where everyone seems to embody their own personality,’ people exude a distinctive eccentricity that leans towards the “crunchy” side of things.
You can see it first and foremost by the pieces of clothing they wear:
Eccentric hats, sky-high plateaued boots, and epithelial-thin crop tops.
Which city am I talking about?
New Orleans.
The Meaning of Crunchy
For those who may not be familiar with the term (I would assume mainly English-as-a-second-language speakers, like me, who only learned this word a few months ago)… what does “crunchy” actually mean?
According to Urban Dictionary, the term is used to describe persons who stereotypically don’t value consumerism and mainstream ideas of wealth and/or have altered their lifestyle for environmental reasons.
“Crunchy persons tend to be politically strongly left-leaning and may be additionally but not exclusively categorized as vegetarians, vegans, eco-tarians, conservationists, environmentalists, neo-hippies, tree huggers, nature enthusiasts, etc.”
Several cities in Europe that are (or used to be) crunchy hotspots are Bologna, Lisbon and Berlin.
Why We Need a Place to Crunch Out
In New Orleans you have the impression that young folks only work in tourism.
Afterall, leisure and hospitality is the third biggest industry of the city.
Whether it’s because I recently left my job and half-decided to spend some of my unemployment months in NYC, or maybe because I am trying to land on my next big endeavor that often gives me chills of fear at night. Alternatively, it might be because after a couple of years of grinding I just needed those vibes:
In New Orleans, I breathed a sigh of relief from my conditioned ambitions, both personal and those influenced by my surroundings, as well as my ‘to-do’ and ‘go-getter’ attitudes.
You add to the recipe the hyper-colorful houses, the tropical-like temperatures, live music everywhere you turn, and you feel like you are in a paradise.
Except that the paradise is only a mushroom-trip type of illusion.
Gentrification is knocking at the front door and preeetty serious crime problems lurk in the city.
In 2022, New Orleans had a rate of 70 homicides per 100,000 residents, as compared to Rome, Italy, which counted 0.6 per 100,000 residents in the same year.
There are also issues of rain and poor stormwater management, and poverty that complete the picture.
So, All Things Considered, Do I Wanna Go Back?
While researching some information for this article, I stumbled upon a quote from the Brazilian novelist Paulo Coelho:
“You don’t choose your life; it chooses you. There’s no point asking why life has reserved certain joys or griefs, you just accept them and carry on. We can’t choose our lives, but we can decide what to do with the joys or griefs we’re given.”
Despite the double-edged nature of New Orleans, I was mesmerized.
Hooked.
Trapped.
I didn’t choose New Orleans, but New Orleans chose me.
And for this reason, I need to go back to this equally magical and problematic place I barely scratched the surface of.
