Over the years, Marlon Rice has worn many community hats. He became an education department vendor teaching creative writing and urban hydroponics in the early 2000s; he founded the Good People NYC organization in 2012, an event production company that runs the Stoop Set block party summer series; and he has been the director of event services for the Bedford-Stuyvesant Restoration Corporation since 2021, where he brings his passion for community engagement to life through impactful programming.
But with the June primary rapidly approaching, Rice, a lifelong resident of Bedford-Stuyvesant, is now a senatorial candidate who is running for the District 25 State Senate seat. He’s taking on three-time incumbent State Senator Jabari Brisport.
Rice, 50, ventured into the world of politics last year when he announced his campaign. Brisport, 38, was the first openly gay person of color to be elected to the state legislature in 2020 and had strong backing from the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA). But things have evolved since then. So far, Brisport has received about $205,088 in public matching funds for his re-election bid, while Rice has received $195,585, according to the New York State Board of Elections.
“In my district, we have a tale of two cities,” said Rice during a recent appearance at the Vanguard Independent Democratic Association (VIDA) headquarters in Bed-Stuy. “I have 8,000 brownstones, but I also have 24 NYCHA developments in my district. So there are affordability needs, but there [is a] need to end the cycle of poverty. And so, we’re building a platform that speaks to both those needs.”
His platform mainly includes boosting pathways to homeownership, repairs and renovations for New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA) residents, preserving the heritage of the district, combatting unemployment, protecting small businesses against rent gouging and skyrocketing energy costs, and fighting against deed theft for aging homeowners. But above all, he wants to connect with and advocate for the seemingly forgotten parts of the senate district that are fundamentally Black, such as Brownsville and Ocean Hill, he said.
Rice’s family, going back to his grandfather, has been significantly active in the community. Rice was raised by his mother, a former paralegal on disability, and his stepfather, Kim Reaves-Bey, who was a 25-year veteran police officer and well-known in the community as a trusted member of law enforcement.
“This was the 80s, where this was crack-era Brooklyn. People lived in brownstones, but a lot of these brownstones were still squatter-oriented. There was drug use happening in them. There were robberies and break-ins,” said Rice. “And so my father was like the neighborhood cop. He was somebody who people would come to. When they needed some assistance, they started calling him the ‘Mayor of the Block.’”
Rice also idolized political titans of the time, like the late Albert Vann, who founded VIDA, and Pan-Africanist Jitu Weusi. “These two men were lions in this community, in terms of community activism, empowerment, and politics,” said Rice. “I was raised by Black male leadership, if that makes sense. That’s the thing that drives me in terms of not just this role of politics, but it really drives me in how I interface with the community. Like as a Black man that lives in this community, I feel a debt of responsibility to this space.”
Brooklyn’s historically Black and Brown neighborhoods have undeniably transformed in recent decades, a metamorphosis driven by citywide issues such as gentrification, deed theft, the affordability crisis, and displacement. Senate District 25, which encompasses several central and eastern Brooklyn neighborhoods, like Bed-Stuy, Clinton Hill, Fort Greene, Ocean Hill, Brownsville, and parts of downtown, is no different.
Once characterized by severe hardship and riddled with crime going back to the 1970s, the district now boasts a diverse array of residents. On one end, there are high earners making over $200,000 salaries, and on the other, there are at least 25% of children and seniors living below the poverty line, based on census survey data. In terms of the racial makeup, Black residents still make up the bulk of the district at 43%, followed by 26% white residents, and 20% Hispanic residents.
“You can’t really reverse displacement,” said Rice. “The 200,000 [Black] people that left over the last 10 years, they’re not returning. But what you can do is solidify the ability for Blacks to still maintain space here.”
In addition to protecting Black and Brown homeowners, Rice’s main gripe is that the senate seat should adhere more closely to local issues rather than platform “national ticket items,” like political pushback against AIPAC funding in city, state, and federal elections. Not one for infighting, he said the long-standing grudge match between centrist ‘old school’ Black Democrats and younger, more progressive Brooklynites isn’t his priority.
He admits that the innate sense of “Black political, cultural, and religious identity” was far more aligned in decades prior, engendering legendary Black leaders and adamant voters in the district, but that has since shifted into “echoes of the past.” Even so, he believes that a unity that appeals to a diverse swath of voters from different identities can be reached.
“Transplants come to New York, or come into Brooklyn, or come to Bed-Stuy with a dream, with the idea of how they’re going to live here,” he said. “Then it becomes a sobering reality that they can’t afford the life that they thought they could live. So they are in the same boat as a resident that lived in a rent-stabilized apartment for years.”
In terms of the state budget, Rice said he’d prioritize funding for Medicare, education, infrastructure, and NYCHA. He is hesitant to throw his full support behind some budget proposals, like Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s call to “tax the rich” without a “comprehensive” follow-through plan. “The socialists are supporting tax the rich for a different reason than our brothers and sisters in Brownsville would support tax the rich,” said Rice.