America, thanks in large part to its economic strength, has an outsize voice in worldwide pop culture, making it easy for subcultures and aging traditions to get swept into its melting pot. Thibodeaux and others make a compelling case for preserving our individual cultures, and filmmakers Abby Berendt Lavoi (director/producer), husband Jeremy Lavoi (director/producer) and Stephen Thorpe (sound producer) foster the conversation with gorgeous cinematography and a soundtrack that is always sharp and compelling.

I met fellow New Orleans transplant, Ellery Burton, 12 years ago, when we were fellow New York transplants, she hailing from Los Angeles. In the city we both attended The New School University; after graduating I stayed in New York and she immediately bee-lined to New Orleans, where she’s been living ever since. Though she’s only been living here for eight years, walking through the Bywater with her makes it seem as though she’s lived here forever. I recently sat down with her at her house in the Lower Ninth Ward to discuss how the city has changed over the past eight years, what makes New Orleans so unique, and what it means to “hustle.”

You’re more likely to be raped, robbed or become a theft victim than to become a murder victim in New Orleans, according to crime statistics released last week by the New Orleans Police Department. The NOPD, which is undergoing the implementation of sweeping, federally mandated reforms, said in a news release last week that the “statistics represent a continued downward trend in murder and show that the number of murders in New Orleans is at a historic nearly 30-year low.”​

Draconian cuts in the budget for lawyers who represent indigent defendants have come back to haunt the Orleans Parish criminal justice system. Upwards of 500 indigent defendants may have been locked up without the benefit of an assigned defense attorney over the past year, according to a brief filed in the state Fourth Circuit Court of Appeal. The brief charges that “many indigent people facing serious criminal charges in New Orleans do not have attorneys.”

As Bobby Jindal begins to lay seeds for a possible run for the White House, approval at home seems to be falling for the Louisiana Governor. The new survey finds Louisiana voters are as conservative as ever, backing the Governor’s refusal to implement the Affordable Care Act, known as Obamacare to critics, by a 13 point margin. However, in a bright sign for Democrats, it also shows that the local electorate has grown slightly critical of Jindal’s refusal of expanded Medicaid dollars.