Beege wrote about this last week while I was on vacation. Kansas City, Mo. has helped to fund a grocery store in a part of town considered a food desert. But it hasn't been going very well lately. The store, at this point, is basically empty despite millions of dollars of city support.
The first sight walking into the Sun Fresh at Linwood Boulevard and 31st Street is the produce section. On Tuesday, the crates and shelves were nearly bare.
“It make me want to walk right back out,” said Greg Hayslett, “but I had to get something. It’s mind boggling.”...
A woman walked past the doors that once had cold cuts inside, bewildered.
“Where’s the meat?” she asked.
The same store was looking grim in April but activists pressured the city to pour more money into this failed business.
In May, after a group of activists with the Urban Summit disrupted a city council meeting to call out the council for holding up more than $1 million in assistance the city council promised a year ago, the city council passed an emergency ordinance to release $750,000 immediately to assist.
Yet, the shortages of fresh food persist.
“I don’t understand why the stocks haven’t been refilled,” said Toni Williams, who has lived in the neighborhood for seven years.
The fundamental problem at this location isn't just a lack of shoppers, it's crime.
The Sun Fresh alleviated a food desert and brought fresh produce to a neighborhood where access to nutritious food hadn’t been readily available. It changed ownership in February 2022, turning a profit that first year, but business dried up in the last 18 months.
The parking lot, which is adjacent to cross-crossing bus lines, has become a magnet for drug use and prostitution. That crime keeps people from navigating the parking lot to get to nearby businesses, including the Sun Fresh, which has seen a spike in theft.
The bill for dealing with that has also fallen on the city.
Last year, the city council approved $750,000 for security, lighting, and infrastructure supported by federal funding through the Community Block Development Grant (CBDG).
Despite that, the crime persists. And something else that persists is the smell. All of the stories about this store mention it. City Manager Mario Vasquez put out a statement saying they were working on finding out what is causing it.
City staff are actively working with the property manager and other partners to address concerns about the store’s condition, including the reported odors and maintenance needs. "A smoke test was recently conducted to investigate potential issues with the plumbing. While no pipe cracks were found, additional follow-up is underway to address lingering smells believed to be connected to drain maintenance and the waste compactor area.
Steps are being taken to resolve these issues, including scheduled clean out and deodorizing by Waste Management.
Obviously if there are bad smells you probably have rotting food somewhere which is not a great sign. Will any of this penetrate the progressive bubble where likely future Mayor of NYC Zohran Mamdani lives? Mamdani ran on creating city-run grocery stores in NYC. So far it seems no one has asked him about the failing store in Kansas City. Maybe someone will get around to it eventually.
Here's a local report on the store. It looks like something you'd see behind the iron curtain many decades ago or in socialist countries like Venezuela more recently.
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