I am a type A personality and my wife liked me best in So. LA where one has to back off or they just won't make it. I walked and talked slower in NO and learned to really relax. When we moved to BR, we had already lived in NO so we had that So. LA experience so when a couple of construction people said they couldn't come back and fix something on our new house immediately because they were going fishing, I understood. I was still pissed but I got it.
That area of the country is all about free time. Everything is done to maximize free time. NO will change people, it is never the reverse.
My wife and I went back 3 years after Katrina and we jumped on the street car to take a ride to the end of St. Charles and I looked over at her and she had tears streaming down her face at what we were seeing. It was a mistake to do that on our first day as those blue tarp images and condemned and deserted homes stayed with us even when we were trying to party on Pat O's patio or hanging out at The Old Absinthe Bar, which can legally serve Absinthe now.
The other thing that changed for the worse is on Bourbon where some local bars didn't reopen and were bought out by Dauquiri's, there are 4 or 5 of them on Bourbon. However, on the plus side, Galatoire's was able to get their entire wait staff back because they hadn't underpaid them as many of the restauranteurs had before they found out taking off to places like Houston where they were treated better.
The eye opener for us was as we watched that American horror story and tragedy unfold was just how many service people in NO were dependent on public transportation and had no other form they could escape in. At one time, I sold Yellow Pages advertising and my territory was the 9th ward and I used to wonder why there weren't many cars there, now I know. I quit the day I got shot at getting out of my car and figured there are just some places I don't belong and that was one of them.....actually, top of the list but still under Beirut, yelling "Hey y'all, I am a pawnbroker, who wants to buy a gun"?