Community Gardening: Anger not Environmentalism

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After the community won the fight for the firehouse, they had to keep going. They realized they could not stop and they could fight city hall. The community gardening was the next endeavor Rogers got involved in. He explained the importance of being proactive instead of reactive, meaning if something needs to be changed, do it yourself, don't wait the city to act. The community needed a green space for the kids, the disabled, and as a center point for the community. With the garden you could show everyone how change can happen and teach the next generation. Rogers explains that he didn't get into the community gardens because of wanting to make the community greener, he was extremely frustrated with what he saw. Taking action was necessary. In a battle between the community of the South Bronx and various developers, Rogers and his team were able to save half the gardens from being sold, thanks to organizations like the Trust for Public Land.

During the 1990s urban renewal was the story of the South Bronx. In 1992, Nos Quedamos worked with developers on the Melrose Commons project, though not conflicting with Roger's garden on 151st Street, could've been part of the developments that some of the gardens were victim to. The deal with Giuliani was made in 1999(tpl.org) and 69 gardens were saved, 62 by the Trust for Public Land which recently transfered 32 of the gardens to the Bronx Land trust, which Rogers is a member of.

This was yet another step in the right direction. Rogers and the community slowly began to realize that they could fight the system and they could not give up. Rogers remembers that someone once told him, "You guys are like pit bulls, they just don't want to deal with you anymore." And to the he responded, "good." It was the perseverance of the community that drove them through, and the Rogers credits the teachings and resources of the community organizations, it also seems to have been a result of the character of the neighborhood. The residents of the South Bronx went through a great deal of trial and tribulation and from that learned how to fight and keep heads above water. This can be exemplified by Rogers' explaining how he learned from it, "I appreciate growing up in this environment because it teaches you there’s evil in the world there's not evil people, drugs are horrible... I would never trade growing up here for nothing because it taught you so much and it was a great moral lesson, and at the end, grounded me in many ways."

 

Community Gardening: Anger not Environmentalism