I chose St. Louis.
When I went down to New Orleans I was struck at how similar both cities are in architecture and history.
I grew up in the STL suburbs (St. Charles) and never made it to the city much, in fact I thought STL was a dump and wanted nothing to do with it.
Last year I moved into the inner ring of suburbs, and happened to take up photography, my photography opened my eyes to the AMAZING architecture STL city has to offer, and all of a sudden I was in love with STL. It is rich in history, and while people here take WAY too long to make any kind of change, it's happening fast and furious right now.
Downtown is experienceing a residential building boom. Downtown is clean and there is a lot of rehab going on, Washington Ave. has sprung to life and there are building being renovated for lofts and apartments on Locust and Olive and soon the Old Post Office district. The remaining Cupples Station buildings on the south side of downtown are slated to be converted into apartments and the old City Hospital will be converted into condos, and with McKree Town being torn down and redeveloped with market rate houses, I think South St. Louis is going to get a whole lot stronger than it is. North St. Louis has a long road ahead of it, but hey, all cities have their problems.
Layfayette Square, Soulard, the Central West End, Tower Grove South, Dogtown, The Hill (I LOVE Dogtown and the CWE) so many beautiful URBAN neighborhoods. STL is far from suburban. Top notch hospitals and universities make it a great place too. FREE world class art museum and Zoo, not to mention the whimsical City Museum, the Fox Theatre and new Contomporary Art museum in Midtown cover all your arts and culture bases.
This post wouldn't be complete without mentioning Forest Park, which is looking INCREDIBLE these days, can't wait until the Grand Basin is finished up, and beautiful Tower Grove Park, which is one of three U.S. parks (along with New York's Central Park and Boston Common) listed as a National Historic Landmark.
Plus property values are going up faster in the city (i think the number is 50% but i'm not sure) than in the county. Hopefully the momentum will continue.
New Orleans was a great place to visit, no doubt, but it seemed to me that its only reason for being was to cater to tourists and the party going crowd, not that that's a bad thing, but it's just not for me, nice place to visit, wouldn't want to live there kind of thing, it does have some incredibly beautiful neighborhoods as well.