Ward 7 City Council candidate Ebony Payne at the playground at The Fields on the RFK campus – part of 27 acres on converted parking lots. Photo: Ebony Payne
There’s One Anti-Stadium Ward 7 Candidate for City Council
by Larry Janezich
Posted January 3, 2024
Ask Kingman Park’s ANC7D Commissioner Ebony Payne why she’s running for City Council from Ward 7 and she cites carjackings, violent crime, Ward 7 truancy rates, the need for activities for young people, better schools, fully-funded programs to protect school children such as the safe passage program, and the need to address Ward 7’s food desert. But what distinguishes her from the other ward 7 candidates is her opposition to the Mayor’s plan to build a stadium on the RFK campus.
“RFK Stadium is in my single member district and that is the biggest galvanizing issue; it overshadows the needs of my most vulnerable constituents.” She recalls how Kingman Park – located just to the north of the RFK campus – was initially proposed to be part of Ward 6 while leaving RFK in Ward 7 in last year’s first draft of the redistricting map. She said, “I knew that planners had a vested interest in separating the community from that site and I fought to keep Kingman Park in Ward 7 so we could have our voices heard. I’m the strongest voice of the community most affected by RFK and I know what the community wants and what it doesn’t want is a sea of parking lots.”
Ward 7 Councilmember Vince Gray announced December 20 that he would not seek re-election. That opened the door for the six Ward 7 candidates who have filed to run for the seat: besides Payne, they include ANC7D Chair and Ware 7 Democrats Chair Wendell Felder, Veda Rasheed, Ebbon Allen, Eboni-Rose Thompson and Kevin Brown.
Payne says, “Councilman Vincent Gray leaves behind very large shoes to fill and a long legacy of public service. I am inspired most by his dedication to bringing healthcare access to residents East of the River and I look forward to having the opportunity to carry on his legacy.”
Payne says she went back and forth on whether to run for City Council. Asked what it was that made up her mind, she says, “You know, I guess I got fed up with feeling my voice was not being heard and as an ANC commissioner we’re supposed to have great weight. And when it comes to special interests that have deep pockets your voice matters even less. So I became dissatisfied with waiting for other candidates to adequately represent the community. When I talk to people about RFK, they feel resigned to its fate whereas I’m much more engaged … and now I feel like we’ve really got the attention of the mayor and the Commanders and the city council, and that’s what we needed.”
Getting that attention came about as a result of a community meeting last October sponsored by the Friends of Kingman Park Civic Association where Mayor Bowser engaged the community on the RFK issue. Payne said that 300 people attended the meeting, plus another 50 on-line and said it “showed that the community wants to be engaged. Getting RFK is one of the Mayor’s top priorities – so I just feel the community’s voice needs to be at the forefront.”
And that issue of priorities is the other part of the reason she decided to run, because she says, she “reached out to community leaders – some of whom are candidates – for things the community needs and was greeted with indifference because it wasn’t their priority. I feel like my community needed me to step up in this moment. And that’s what I’m doing.”
Asked for her reply to someone who says she is too young and inexperienced, she says, “I would say I’m not bought and paid for. I’m a real person. I’m part of the community and they can trust that and that I have the community’s best interests at heart.”
Payne says that last August, the Friends of Kingman Park sponsored a poll of 2,000 residents of the communities affected by RFK: Rosedale, Hill East, River Terrace, Parkside, Mayfair and Eastland Gardens. She says that 1500 residents responded to the poll and “70% of them were opposed to a stadium and that’s what we presented to the Mayor at the meeting in October.”
What her community wants to see on the RFK campus, she says, is “community-led mixed use development including sports amenities, open green space, new intergenerational housing, a hospital, and retail shops.”
But before anything happens on the RFK campus, DC needs to gain control of the property which is owned by the federal government. Congress is considering legislation which would extend the city’s lease of the property for 99 years and permit development of the site. The US House of Representatives Oversight Committee has reported the bill to the House which could take it up in 2024. The bill has bipartisan support and if passed by the House would go to the Senate for passage there.
In her personal life, Payne is partnered with Democratic political consultant Chuck Rocha, who has been using social media to support Payne’s candidacy and help raise funds in the Capitol Hill East neighborhoods.
CAPITOL HILL CORNER 