KC’s Slouch Toward Socialism

PUBLISHED FEBRUARY 2026

Ah, socialism! Last August, patrons headed to the Kansas City-owned Sun Fresh grocery store at East 31st and Prospect only to find the doors locked and a sign posted telling them, “Unfortunately, due to unforeseen circumstances beyond our control, we are no longer, at this time, able to serve the residents of this community.”

They say that experience is the best teacher, but if so, Mayor Quinton Lucas and his City Council appear to have slept through Urban Experience 101. The circumstances at Sun Fresh were anything but “unforeseen.” The city started throwing money at this boondoggle—$29 million at last count—while Barack Obama
was still president and appears eager to throw more.

An aspiring socialist, Lucas has failed to see the folly of ignoring market forces. Said the mayor’s spokesperson after the abrupt closing, “We will immediately begin working with community stakeholders, potential new private operators, and neighborhood leaders to identify sustainable solutions for the location.” The most sustainable solution would be to get out of the grocery business.

KC’s grocery meltdown might have passed unnoticed had it not been for New York City’s ambitious socialist mayor, Zohran Mamdani. Among the many outsized promises Mamdani made as a candidate was a plan to open city-run grocery stores. By absolving the stores of rent and taxes, the boy mayor figured he could make the stores more affordable, “affordability” being the buzz word of his fantasy campaign.

The story might have died there were Mamdani facing only Republican opposition, but he wasn’t. New York’s former governor, Gov. Andrew Cuomo—ostensibly a fellow Democrat—was nipping at his heels in the mayoral primary, and Cuomo had the media contacts to make the grocery story go national. For several years, the mismanagement of the Sun Fresh store had been Kansas City’s squalid little secret. Now it came to serve as an example writ large of how cities ought not meddle in private enterprise.

Soon after the Sun Fresh fiasco played out, a rumor spread that the midtown Costco would convert into a Costco Business Center, a format that further narrowed the options for urban shoppers. Curiously, Costco execs have stayed mum about this change, but they have allowed their employees to discuss the conversion openly.

If its business-center lineup in other markets is an indication, the store will still carry food and produce, but it will not offer the extras that made it a destination for Midtown types too cool for the suburbs or anything “Walton.” No more eye-care center, pharmacy, or food court. Those desiring electronics, toys, furniture, wall-sized TVs, or other Chinese gewgaws will have to gird their loins for a trip to places like Lenexa or Lee’s Summit. 

Last time I checked, the streetcar doesn’t quite make it to either.

Unchastened by the failure to run their store, the mayor and city council propose to tell the privately-owned Costco how to run its store. Since the city gave birth to the Midtown Costco through a 2001 TIF that leveled 30 acres of housing—another dubious overreach—council members feel obliged to remind Costco execs who’s their daddy.

And what more paternalistic way to do so then by passing a Lucas-sponsored “RESOLUTION.” The resolution directs the city manager and the city’s economic-development agencies to “initiate talks with Costco with the aim of keeping the store at 241 Linwood Boulevard operating in its current form—or to secure a replacement store of similar size and offerings.”

If Costco execs think the mayor is just blowing smoke, the folks at Platform Ventures know better. They can do a show-and tell on how the smoke from City Hall can be more than metaphorical. Encouraged by Lucas’ incendiary rhetoric, an aspiring female arsonist recently did her amateurish best to burn down a massive Platform Ventures warehouse in south Kansas City.

Weeks earlier, ICE and DHS agents were spotted touring the warehouse to evaluate its use as a potential detention center. A decade ago, city officials would have welcomed this move. 

President Obama proudly accepted the designation as “deporter-in-chief” and personally gave current ICE honcho Tom Homan, then the DHS guy in charge of “enforcement and removal,” the Presidential Rank Award. Back then, you see, ICE was cool.

Not in 2026, not with the midterm elections looming. That same afternoon as the ICE tour, City Council members rushed to approve an unenforceable “moratorium” on all city approvals for non-municipal detention facilities. Dissenting Northland council member Nathan Willett said, sensibly enough, “Kansas City should not take part in obstructing or appearing to obstruct legitimate state and federal law enforcement efforts.” 

You think?

Willett’s was the only “no” vote. Lucas and The Kansas City Star led a full-court press to kill the proposed deal. Worn down by “baseless speculations, inaccurate narratives, serious threats towards their leadership, employees and families,” Platform Ventures announced that no sale to the feds was forthcoming. Apparently, the arsonist did not get the memo. She set fire to the warehouse four hours after its execs said, “No mas.”

This drama played out against the backdrop of a slow-motion fiscal crisis at City Hall. Days after Platform Venture’s coerced withdrawal from what could have been a job and tax windfall, Kansas City announced it would have to make deep cuts across the board and “drastic cuts” at  KCPD. 

As they say, “go woke, go broke.” There’s no denying the “woke” part, but the mayor assures his taxpayers, ‘This city ain’t going to be broke under my watch.’”

Time will tell if the mayor’s fiscal policy is any sounder than his grammar. In the meantime, Kansas City has selected still another operator for its doomed grocery store. Said Lucas with an apparent straight face, “United Market reflects the City’s commitment to long-term stability and reliable grocery access for the community.”

Veteran Sun Fresh employees had a more realistic feel for that community. Reportedly, they had taken to carrying tasers under their aprons. Given a shrunken police force and a woke prosecutor, the taser business should be booming. 

Costco execs, take note.