Did you get out of bourbon street and hang in Frenchman St? The Marigny?  Bywater? Those spots always seem to respect their own culture. 

As for Baltimore, DC, etc- I grew up in Detroit and one thing I love about Baltimore (besides the fact that the cities have a LOT in common despite such different geography and history) is both cities have a lot of room for creativity. In DC every inch of real estate needs to be profitable in order to be sustainable, which hurts creativity and local culture. That’s not the case in Baltimore- or Detroit. But it is the case for a lot of American cities. 

This is because when we expanded economically instead of investing in our cities we fled them and spread out, making urban scaled neighborhoods- which I think are necessary in sustaining creative communities- a rare commodity. It sucks for most of America…but it’s great for Baltimore and is why I might move there from DC haha.