NEW ORLEANS — When I parked my car and walked toward the gate of the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival, I couldn’t help but think of myself as lucky. No other cities like New Orleans exist in the world. The food, the music, the culture — and most importantly the people — make New Orleans a place unparalleled to any other. This year marks the first year since Hurricane Katrina that the festival is back up to 12 stages. The crowds were huge, and it seemed as if the city was happy. If indeed a city can be happy. The streets around Jazz Fest showed the diversity of a city that’s been known as a melting pot since before this country existed. People of all races, religions and socioeconomic statuses join to make the festival a truly beautiful event. As I walked through the crowded neighborhood streets toward the festival, a middle-aged woman stopped me, asking, “Hey, baby, you want a beer?” I responded with a “No, thank you,” as I didn’t want to shell more than the $3 I figured she wanted. But as I was about to decline, she said, “It’s free, baby, just want to make sure everyone is having a good time.” It’s people like this that make New Orleans a special place. Inside the festival it’s a little harder to pinpoint the New Orleanians, as so many people from out of town converge on the Fair Grounds Race Course for the weekend.  Jazz Fest is a show-and-tell of New Orleans residents. They show all the visitors what they’ve been missing out on — from the funky brass music to the steaming red beans and rice — and tell them all about the city they have come to love. And most of the visitors are in awe.Every person I talked to from outside Louisiana was in love with the city. Jason Arlington, a native of Baltimore, Md., who I met during the Galactic show was blown away. Arlington knew every note of Galactic’s songs but had never been to Jazz Fest and had never seen Galactic live. “I have a recording of these guys playing Jazz Fest live a few years ago on my iPod,” Arlington said. “Just listening to that tape made me realize I had to come here.” And Arlington’s not alone. Every year, thousands of people converge on New Orleans for the weekend from all over the world. So my plea is to the Louisiana residents who don’t appreciate the gifts they have. It makes me sad that people from outside Louisiana know Louisiana music better than many of its own residents. It’s always easy to overlook things you’ve become accustomed to, like the Internet or electricity. We all learned how difficult it is to live without those comforts during our recent hurricanes, but should it take us being removed from comforts to be aware of how much better they make our lives? As many of our jazz legends become older, it becomes all the more important for us to participate in the dialogue of the city. Just this year, Snooks Eaglin, Antoinette K-Doe and Eddie Bo passed away, begging the question, who will fill their shoes? Young New Orleanians like Troy Andrews, Sammie Williams and Wynton Marsalis are doing their best, but we can’t forget their ancestors. Hopefully, we’ll be able to appreciate New Orleans history, heritage and people while they’re still here, because we’ll all die someday.  But the music will live on forever in the hearts of those young people who have heard it. ——Contact Jack LeBlanc at [email protected]