More From The Lower 9th: Pastor Charles Duplessis on What It Takes to Bring a Community Back

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Down in the Lower 9th Ward last Sunday, on the anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, after the parade, I spoke with Pastor Charles Duplessis, whose home had been rebuilt by the Mennonite Disaster Services, who had rebuilt the homes of two pastors in order to start bringing the communities back to the Lower 9th. Pastor Charles explained that with the pastors come the churches, which bring the communities which bring the schools, which bring the businesses. He detailed how he’d just done some renovations to his home when Katrina hit — and leveled — his block, and how after three and a half years living in Tuskagee, Alabama, he and his family were finally able to come home. He also talked a bit about the fight to come home — apparently there was a move to turn the Lower 9th into a “green space” — but he said that it was their property, and “he who controls his property controls his destiny.” During the whole interview the front porch was filled with people, including one of the architects for Brad Pitt’s Make It Right foundation (the woman with the baby in the Bjorn at the beginning), plus his little grandson. A longish interview but a good watch, and yet another slice of how life is coming back in the Lower 9th.

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