By Gene Lambey
Special to the AFRO
Ebony Payne is the current Advisory Neighborhood Commissioner (ANC) for 7D05, she is a native Washingtonian and has lived in the Kingman Park neighborhood with her family for over twenty years and currently represents the River Terrace neighborhood.
Payne’s goals as she is running for Ward 7 seat include handling transportation issues, maintaining RFK Stadium’s community usage and working with the local farmers in producing fresh foods.
“We don’t get enough of the solutions that we ask for and need. That has been a real problem.”
“The food desert and food access issues in Ward 7 are one of the most common questions I get, especially for anyone living east of the river. I see potential in harnessing our local farmers,” said Ebony Payne.
Payne praises local Black-owned farmers in the Upper Marlboro region of Maryland and Payne reaches out to them. Payne states that the Black farmers in Maryland have, “more of a stake in wanting to actually help people in Ward 7 get access to fresh foods.”
Payne told the AFRO that one of her main goals is to keep Open Air operating at the RFK Stadium parking lot in her pursuit for the Ward 7 Council seat. She is concerned that whatever happens to the RFK Stadium, the farmer’s market will be affected.
“I’m going to start harnessing all of the connections I’ve made with my local farmers to solve the food desert crisis in Ward 7,” said Payne.
Payne stated that Open Air is the only farmer’s market in Ward 7 that impacts those who are on SNAP or for the elderly community. This farmer’s market is over forty years old and was first started by former mayor Marion Barry in 1983. Overall, in Payne’s plans, she would like to have at least two or more farmer’s markets or a food hall within Ward 7.
In her previous career, she maintained a massage therapy practice for ten years after graduating from the Potomac Massage Training Institute. Over the last ten years, she grew to have a passion for herbology and vegetation.
In her political career and where her passion lies, she is committed to her work in public service and she is actively working to not only improve the lives of the Kingman Park community but Ward 7 as a whole.
Panye and her mother constructed a group called the RFK Future Taskforce, an organization that oversees the RFK campus.
Members of the RFK Future Taskforce include residents of Kingman Park, Rosedale, River Terrace, Hill East and Capitol Hill. Payne stated that this group has over thirty members overlooking RFK’s campus.
“I’m on the board of the Friends of Kingman Park and we’ve been organizing the community and just spreading the word about everything that is at stake. I organized our meeting with the mayor that we had in October. She came at my invitation,”said Ebony Payne.
Payne and the Friends of Kingman Park created a survey in August on the future of the dilapidating RFK Stadium and presented this survey to Mayor Muriel Bowser a few days before the RFK Community Meeting on Oct. 18. The survey was recorded having over two thousand responses.
“We got a lot of community feedback and we found that 70 percent of the community surrounding the stadium do not want to see another stadium return. There were about thirty percent that were open to the idea. That matches my door knocking experience because I asked everybody how they feel about it.”
Payne stated to the AFRO that she felt that she “had the support of everybody in the community.” Payne believes that even the thirty percent of people that were in support of a new stadium being built would support her.
“I think people just trust me to put the community first, during negotiations and decision-making. I am part of the community. I live here. I am directly affected by what happens at RFK.”
Payne mentioned about the smaller communities that would be affected by the decisions surrounding the RFK Stadium campus. She talked with the AFRO about The Fields, which consists of three separate fields for soccer, baseball and football games as well as a playground. Payne stated to the AFRO that The Fields are temporary and may not be staying on the RFK Stadium campus.
Payne mentions that The Fields have been a popular place for the youth since it was built back in 2019. According to Payne, over one thousand kids have been coming to The Fields since it was first built. A budget of thirty million dollars funded by Events DC was put into the construction of The Fields facilities. Payne was discouraged to learn there is not a definitive answer on The Fields.
Payne spoke to the AFRO about the group of young skaters who were present at the RFK Community Meeting on Oct. 18. The Maloof Skate Park, which is located directly in front of the entrance to the RFK Stadium and across from the D.C. Armory, this is a place that Payne has taken notice of and she prioritizes it.
“Out of everything that came out of that meeting with the mayor, it was those boys showing up to talk about how their skate park is helping them stay out of trouble and helping with youth violence gun violence. That is what I see the RFK campus as being used for. We really can’t afford to lose The Fields, the farmer’s market or the skate park.”
The AFRO asked Payne how she handled complaints and requests from the Kingman Park community.
Payne has shared complaints that the Department of Public Works (DPW) and District Department of Transportation (DDOT) have not been servicing Ward 7 well. As she is running for Ward 7 council seat, she is hoping to address this issue.
“My biggest challenge has been DDOT,” said Payne. “A lot of the changes that they’ve made in the community had a lot of unintended consequences that they’ve been unhelpful in resolving.”
Constituents main concerns range from aggressive driving to speeding cars in the alleys and on streets. Payne would like to add more speed bumps in the neighborhoods to prevent speeding and aggressive driving.
“We don’t get enough of the solutions that we ask for and need. That has been a real problem.”
The AFRO asked Payne how she would overcome this challenge as she is running for Ward 7 seat.
“Specifically with the transportation challenge, to me it’s learning the specific transportation challenges in each community throughout Ward 7. There’s also just other transportation issues all throughout the ward. My goal is to find out what all of those are. Once I become city councilwoman, I can fix those problems for folks,”said Payne.
Payne highlights crime within Ward 7 and stated to the AFRO that this is an issue that needs to be examined. She mentions carjacking incidents throughout the Ward.
She recalls a time when incidents like these did not occur in this neighborhood which is why crime is one of her focuses for her campaign.
“There has definitely been a spike of crime, violent crime, carjackings. I would like to see us hire and retain high-quality police,” said Ebony Payne.
Payne stated that she would like to see more Black women in the police force and urges more police officers to engage with the community. Payne believes that the police should connect with the communities within Ward 7 to build a trust system.
Payne made sure to praise the 5th District Police commander, Sylvan Alteri. She claims that his approach to the community has been responsive and informative.
Payne also shared that she is in favor of Mayor Bowser’s legislation on the Addressing Crime Trends Now Act (ACT Now) and submitted a written testimony to uphold the legislation.
The ACT Now legislation highlights drug-free zones, penalizing organized crime theft and banning black ski masks. Payne claims that there are still “challenges” with this new legislation but that she hopes it will address youth crime and truancy.
“The chronic truancy rate is a really big problem and it has a big connection to our spike in crime. We are really experiencing the after effects of the pandemic. For adults, we have certain coping mechanisms where we can deal with stress. In a more healthy way, we’ve learned how to do that, but for kids they’ve missed three years of not just school but also socializing with their friends,” said Payne.
Payne believes that many of the students that have been affected by the learning gap have negative outcomes. She continues further stating how social media also plays a role in the students’ behavior, exposing dangerous content to them they may not be able to comprehend.
“Looking at chronic truancy and figuring out how to get those kids back into schools is going to be a real key piece to how we solve crime in DC,” said Ebony Payne.
Payne suggests that the parents need support in order to help their children. She alludes to having social workers work with these children to get them the help they need in order to get back to school.
In the race for the D.C. Council Ward 7 seat, Ebony Payne is one of five candidates. Veda Rasheed, Ebbon Allen, Eboni-Rose Thompson, Kelvin Brown and Wendell Felder have also entered the race. Felder and Payne currently serve together on the ANC commission of which Feler is chair. Vincent Gray, the current council member for Ward 7 will not run for reelection.
Correction: This article has been corrected to reflect the neighborhood Ebony Payne represents as an Advisory Neighborhood Commissioner.