Committed to solutions: Sun Fresh crisis sparks action for prosperity of Prospect Corridor

A Kansas City police officer stands watch at the front door of Sun Fresh Market as part of the police department’s commitment to provide round-the-clock patrolling at 31st and Prospect Avenue. Photo by LINC.

They’d seen the startling realities the week before.

Phone videos captured by staff at Sun Fresh Market at 31st and Linwood Avenue revealed one horror after another. The images of individuals entering the store either drunk, high, naked, armed, belligerent or some combination of those and other disturbing behaviors played out on the screen for an overflow crowd at the Urban Summit’s Friday meeting.

Call to action

The City Council’s Finance, Governance and Public Safety Committee will be meeting and is expected to discuss important issues including the public safety tax important to the future of the 31st and Prospect Corridor

Tuesday, Sept. 10, at 6 p.m.

Plaza Branch of the Kansas City Public Library

4801 Main Street Kansas City, MO

Now, the morning of Sept. 6, the gathering of community partners, pastors, policy makers, city leaders and concerned neighbors returned with the nerve to do something about it.

A lot is at stake.

It is important to be clear, say Sun Fresh’s owners and operators, that their store provides goods and services at competitive prices with full-time security. Customers for the most part enjoy an ordinary grocery store experience provided for their neighborhood.

And those customers need to keep coming for the store to thrive.

But the entire multi-million-dollar community investment in the vital city center surrounding Sun Fresh is straining under the pressure of the poverty, mental health crises, substance abuse and crime lacing a community that aims to rise.

The Urban Summit, meeting just four blocks away at Morning Star Youth and Family Life Center at 27th and Prospect, brought key players back into the room to work with the Summit’s Prospect Corridor Solutions Task Force.

Keyword: Solutions.

A large crowd from the community at the Urban Summit at Morning Star Youth and Family Life Center discuss ideas to help preserve the business centers at 31st Street and Prospect Avenue.

That first meeting, seven days earlier, had laid out the conflicts: Lack of jail space. Lack of enforcement. Lack of social services. Lack of low-barrier housing. Lack of political will.

“Last week we talked a lot about the problems,” said Urban League Executive Director Gwen Grant as she opened the Sept. 6 meeting. “Today we’re going to talk about what we are doing and what else needs to be done to solve this problem and have sustainable change.”

People in the crowded room each held printouts from the Urban Summit listing plans and proposals from major players in the situation — including the Kansas City Police Department, the Jackson County and city prosecutors offices, the city of Kansas City and City Council, neighborhood associations, health services and more.

Said Grant: “We’re going to get to work, folks.”

Over the next 90 minutes, the room reviewed proposals in law enforcement mitigation tactics, intervention and prevention tactics, policy and advocacy priorities and economic investments. They reviewed projected timelines for projects and budget commitments.

And they opened the floor for people to call out gaps in the plans.

The Urban Summit is promising a tracking system, keeping watch on the many plans for action, and reporting it out.

Police Chief Stacey Graves outlined round-the-clock patrolling plans for the area. She added that the department would use the detention center at the department’s Metro Division to give police more space to hold arrestees for up to 24 hours, giving prosecutors time to review potential cases.

The Chief was back, emphasizing a promise she had made the week before.

“We are partners,” she said. “We do not want the grocery store to close.”

Emmet Pierson Jr., CEO of Community Builders of Kansas City which owns the store, said the store has absorbed $1.5 million in losses primarily due to theft and security costs — which he said the store does not pass on to customers.

“I’m eating those costs,” he said. But the situation has to change, he said.

Don Maxwell, President of the Prospect Business Association, has been a major influence in bringing a grocery store as well as more than two dozen other businesses in the Prospect corridor.

Now in his 80s, Maxwell said he took his first job at Prospect and 31st when he was 13, shining shoes. He said his heart is in the neighborhood, and he stood as a voice for all the impacted businesses.

“We are here with open arms,” he said. “We are trying to stay open. Come back to the shopping center. There are 25 other stores up there that need assistance as well.”

Leaders of surrounding neighborhood associations, including the Key Coalition, Santa Fe, Oak Park and Ivanhoe neighborhoods, voiced their support and their concerns. Without accompanying social services and supports, they said, trespassers who are pushed from one street corner will migrate to other corners in their neighborhoods.

Many initiatives that would help are still in the works, or still need funding. The Community Action Network (CAN) Center is coming soon with some outreach teams, overdose specialists and code enforcement officers from the city. Plans are being made for mental health beds, low-barrier housing shelters, and more detention units.

The Urban Summit is encouraging people to attend a meeting by the City’s Finance, Governance and Public Safety Committee Sept. 10 at 6 p.m. That meeting has been moved to the Plaza Library, 4801 Main St.

At that meeting, Grant said, the group will be advocating for an expanded public safety tax that addresses the root causes of crime, including mental health beds, detox substance abuse beds and treatment and low-barrier shelters.

The Rev. James Tindall Sr. wrapped up the meeting, thanking the people for their commitment, and thanking Pierson, Maxwell and everyone who has worked to keep Sun Fresh in the community.

“I remember when it was a food desert,” Tindall said. “We appreciate you.”