From an annoyance to a force

The story of the South Bronx standing up to city hall is a classic parallel to the story of David and Goliath as Rogers explains, "The Israelites saw the Goliath and said 'We can not win,' and David said 'he’s a giant, how can I miss him?' And he took the rock and hit the giant because he was a big target… and that's what I saw that we were doing." Nonetheless this story changed over time. The South Bronx has had a pretty terrible voting record according to Rogers, "We vote like a bunch of knuckleheads" As a result the officials elected to represent the South Bronx were not there to represent the people, they were often bought out by developers or "In bed" with the mayor as Rogers says. Rogers and the South Bronx People for change would go to the elected officials to ask them to get something done and they'd say "We'll try", "Okay write a letter to tell the mayor”…, “I don’t know if I can write a letter you know." They were afraid of the mayor as Rogers would say, they wanted to be on his side and not the people's side. This mistrust in the system was a product of years of not listening to the people and taking advantage of the lack of representation.

The solution to this lack of representation was community organizing. It started with the churches as Rogers explained. The churches provided the funding for the South Bronx People of Change to exist. The model for organizing was completely grassroots. They organization held meetings to educate the community, the belief was in empowerment. There were people of all faiths who were brought together by the South Bronx People for Change.

A study conducted in 2013 by Lee Ann Slocum, Andres Rengifo, Tiffany Choi, and Christopher Herman found that places of worship was the predominant organization type in the South Bronx Community District 1 which includes Mott Haven, Melrose, and Port Morris. Of the 343 organizations identified, there were 101 places of worship found. Rogers is a member of the Immaculate Conception Church and was part of the South Bronx People for Change which fostered joint community action across all places of worship. "The South Bronx People of Change had Mosques, Catholic churches Lutheran churches Episcopal churches, we didn’t have a synagogue but if there was one they would’ve been on board, we would’ve tried to bring in our Hebrew brothers." Churches were apparently the most important catalyst of change for the South Bronx and combined, their power had significant sway. One organization, South Bronx Churches (SBC), which Rogers worked with, was responsible for funding parts of the Melrose Commons Urban Renewal Project. (Gonzalez) Rogers repeatedly stated that it was faith that was one of the most crucial elements of the community's efforts.

Rogers at one point quoted a passage from the Bible's Book of Luke, "The widow comes and says, 'You have to give me my share’ and he says, 'No I’m not giving it to you, I fear neither god nor man and she’s a widow so she has no children or husband to fight for her so she keeps knocking on the door and eventually he says once more, 'I fear neither god nor man but give her what she wants just to shut her up.' and part of our thing was our persistence."