Living in a community that is safe and healthy is a priority we all share. We care about our neighbors and want to create an environment where residents can thrive — which must include reducing public nuisance and crime in vulnerable corridors of our city.
As a local store owner and operator, I pride myself on maintaining a place where my customers can rely on me for their everyday needs. However, the proposed Retail Alcohol Impact Area Ordinance currently before city officials misses the reality of what this means for small businesses and the families we serve. While the ordinance aims to address quality-of-life concerns, a new independent impact assessment warns that the collateral damage from the proposal could trigger significant unintended economic and social consequences. Simply put: Kansas City cannot achieve safety by targeting the retail infrastructure that provides food, medicine and jobs to underserved communities.
The proposed ordinance, which would ban alcohol sold in certain smaller size containers such as single-serving bottles, fails to account for the neighborhood retail ecosystem. Many convenience stores operate on thin margins. For them, banning specific products isn’t just a minor adjustment, but a threat to their survival. According to the impact analysis, the loss of sales from this ordinance could lead to a spiral of revenue declines and permanent closures. The numbers tell the story: an estimated $130 million in total annual economic losses, more than 1,000 jobs lost and roughly $6.5 million in reduced annual tax revenues should this ordinance pass. These are dollars that should be spent implementing programs that uplift our communities, not stripped away from the local economy…