Ward 6 residents don’t want the NFL team to return to RFK

D.C. Mayor Muriel E. Bowser (D), center, and other local politicians and community organizers break ground on Aug. 29 for the project to renovate the RFK Stadium campus into recreational fields. (Calla Kessler/The Washington Post)

I attended the Aug. 29 groundbreaking ceremony at RFK Stadium that will bring to the RFK campus much-needed multipurpose playing fields for residents of the entire city, mostly children, to use [“District wants Redskins ‘home,’ ” Sports, Aug. 30].

This is the beginning move in the redevelopment that has been in planning stages for years. EventsDC has been working tirelessly with public officials, government agencies (both federal and District-based) and the general public, and has been especially attentive to the residents of Wards 6 and 7. This change will transform the entire area, including all of the parking lots, into a sports, educational and cultural destination that everyone — residents and visitors alike — will be able to enjoy every day of the year.

The coverage was more about the Redskins returning to the beloved stadium site and the use of the name “Redskins” by D.C. Mayor Muriel E. Bowser (D). As a 67-year-old native Washingtonian and resident of Ward 6, I can only hope the mayor’s newly rediscovered love for the National Football League team — and that name — and it returning to the current stadium site is merely a fleeting fancy. Puppy love, if you will. Residents of Ward 6 don’t wish to see it return. Our beloved RFK has had its “glory days.” It is time for its home-going — not homecoming.

I ask Ms. Bowser, given that she did not mention the NFL team at the groundbreaking ceremony, a simple question: What would Bobby Kennedy do?

Vernon E. "Skip" Strobel II, Washington