Writer and musicologist Tom Piazza weighs in on his adopted city with the poignant Why New Orleans Matters. This book is a bittersweet paean to what is, arguably, the most joyous metropolis in North America and, ironically, the product of the kind of racial and cultural mongrelizing that America has given lip service to for a few hundred years. Those of you being swayed by the "it doesn't make sense to rebuild New Orleans" argument should read this and think again.