New Orleans - Murder Capitol or Cultural Capitol?

Mainstream news is reporting this week that New Orleans is the Murder Capitol of the U.S. Per capita it is...alongside other impoverished American cities like Gary and Detroit, cities that have also suffered decades of neglect and disinvestment, cities with no economic opportunity.
This maligning designation overshadows the incredible creativity that exists in the city though, its improvisational impulse and public performance culture. new Orleans is also a city that embodies the very best of the American spirit. It is the heart and soul of America. New Orleans is the only city on America where on Sunday afternoons thousands of people sing, dance and parade their way for miles through the streets with the brass bands of the city's social aid and pleasure clubs, where brightly colored plumes of Mardi Gras Indians blow in warm tropical breezes.
It is the National Rifle Association and the nation's gun manufacturers, abysmally low wages and an almost complete lack of economic opportunity that is responsionsible for the anger of young men that results in gun violence.
The attached video, of the Tamborine and Fan Social Aid & Pleasure Club's Mardi Gras Indian Downtown Super Sunday Celebration, is an example of the music, art and culture of New Orleans, that if it were more fully acknowledged and invested in, could save New Orleans. It sure won't be our politicians.
Yeah! Indians! Here they Come!