2004 · City Council 1999-2007
Saving Leon's Thriftway and Seven Oaks Shopping Center
When a grocery store closes in a suburban neighborhood, it is an inconvenience. Residents drive to the next one.
When a grocery store closes in an inner city neighborhood where it is the only source of fresh food for miles, it is a crisis.
Leon's Thriftway at Seven Oaks Shopping Center was that kind of grocery store. It served the neighborhood around 39th and Kensington on Kansas City's East Side. When a redevelopment plan threatened to demolish the shopping center, I introduced an ordinance to save it.
The Stakes
Seven Oaks Shopping Center was more than a strip mall. It was the commercial anchor of its neighborhood. Leon's Thriftway was the grocery store that residents depended on for fresh food. Vernon Stapleton, who ran the store in its later years, told KCUR that for many residents Leon's served as a general store, especially for those who do not have cars.
The threat was not a market correction. It came from a redevelopment plan that required the shopping center to be demolished. It was the latest chapter in a pattern of commercial retreat from Black neighborhoods that had been playing out for decades across Kansas City. Retailers left. Services left. Investment left. And residents were expected to accept it because the market had decided their neighborhood was not worth serving.
I did not accept it. I introduced an ordinance to protect the shopping center and the grocery store because losing them would have been devastating for the community. The ordinance was a legislative tool to create the conditions for the grocery store to remain viable. The ordinance would reopen the redevelopment to the City's bidding process and give community leaders a say in what happens to the complex and the shopping center.
The Fight
Local press covered the effort from multiple angles. "Ordinance Introduced to Save Seven Oaks Shopping Center and Leon's Thriftway." "Ordinance Introduced to Save Local Grocery Store." "Supporters Work to Bag ALDI Grocery for East Side." These stories captured a community fighting for its most basic commercial infrastructure. Not a luxury retailer. Not an entertainment venue. A grocery store.
The fact that a city council member had to introduce legislation to preserve a grocery store tells you everything about the priorities of the market and the government that was supposed to regulate it. In a just city, no neighborhood would lose its only grocery store because the economics did not work for the corporate chain. In the real Kansas City, this was happening regularly, and the only defense was political action.
The ALDI campaign was a parallel effort that complemented the Leon's Thriftway fight. ALDI's business model, with its lower operating costs and discount pricing, was better suited to serve low income markets. But even ALDI required persuasion. We had to demonstrate market demand, secure public incentives, and overcome the same site selection biases that had kept other grocers out.
The community's response to these efforts was overwhelming. Residents turned out at meetings. They wrote letters. They signed petitions. They made it clear that grocery access was not a nice-to-have amenity. It was a necessity that they were willing to fight for. And their elected representative was willing to fight alongside them.
The Lesson For Development
Grocery anchored development is one of the most impactful investments you can make in an underserved neighborhood. A grocery store provides fresh food, creates jobs, generates foot traffic for adjacent businesses, and signals to the market that a neighborhood is viable.
The fight to save Leon's Thriftway taught me that grocery access should not depend on market conditions alone. When the market fails a community, government must intervene. And when government intervenes effectively, it can create the conditions for the market to return.
That lesson informs every mixed use development plan The Nash Group creates. We evaluate the retail environment as part of our site analysis. We advocate for grocery inclusion in neighborhood development plans. And we understand, from direct experience, what happens to a community when its last grocery store disappears.
The broader pattern of commercial advocacy that included the Leon's Thriftway fight, the ALDI campaign, and the eventual grocery-anchored groundbreaking at 39th and Prospect represents one of the most sustained economic development efforts in the Third District's history. Each battle was part of a longer war to ensure that East Side residents had the same access to fresh food that every other part of the city took for granted.
We were willing to fight that war. The record shows it.
This is what we mean by community engagement.
Not a meeting series. Presence, on their schedule, until something changes.