Can Kansas City prevent violent crime through cracking down — and even closing — businesses that are on speed dial for police?
Mayor Quinton Lucas and the city council think so, using what they call a “collaborative public safety” model that pairs several city agencies and private property owners.
This month, the council expanded the city’s “chronic nuisance” code, which had included only parking lots in entertainment districts, to encompass all problem properties citywide.
One of the effort’s first projects, the Downtown Market at 1103 Grand Blvd., is showing that collaboration is complicated.
Citing persistent public safety issues, the mayor’s office sent a formal cease-and-desist letter to the market in late September, and the building’s owner then issued a 10-day lease termination notice.
But the Downtown Market is still open.
“It is harder than anyone thinks,” Lucas said. “The lawyer in me understands it, but the neighbor, the dad, the guy in Kansas City, really doesn’t.”
The Downtown Market, on a busy corner near a bus stop at 11th Street and Grand Boulevard, is a large convenience store with a vast array of alcohol, lottery tickets and tobacco for sale. It landed on the city’s radar after documentation showed that the Kansas City Police Department responded to 184 calls for service at the location, with 101 of those calls for “disturbances,” from August 2023 through August 2025.
In a Sept. 24 letter the city sent to the market owners, it ordered immediate corrective action because of “unrelenting, open and notorious drug activity and intoxication, round-the-clock presence of incapacitated individuals … disorderly conduct, fights and armed violence, and a shooting in January 2025." (A manager shot a customer who allegedly charged at him with a knife, according to police).
Neither the business nor the property owners returned calls to KCUR seeking comment. The market is owned by Rakesh and Sanjay Yadav, both of Kansas City, according to records from the Missouri secretary of state's office. The building is owned by Professional Building LLC.
Lucas said the city tried to work with the business, which promised a limited number of liquor sales and addressing the disturbances inside and outside the store. Now, with the expanded nuisance ordinance, the city has the tools to move faster to correct or enforce serious public safety issues, Lucas said.
“This is Kansas City, instead of ignoring it like we did for too many years, stepping up and doing something about it,” he said.
Closure or any other action appears to be caught up in a legal fight. While the business and the property owner work through that process, the city will continue to have conversations with the market’s owners, increase inspections and take other steps to increase safety nearby, Lucas said.
“It's frustrating to me as a resident and many others because it's not fast, but it certainly is the sort of thing that tells folks we will hold them accountable, and I'm glad we have more tools to do it now,” he said.
Among other options for enforcement, the city was successful in closing an auto shop at 56th and Prospect in July 2023 after three people were killed and nine others injured while the business was operating an illegal after-hours club.
When two men were killed and others injured in a Power & Light District parking lot in August, Lucas called on private businesses to step up security measures. Calling unsecured parking lots in the city’s entertainment districts “a breeding ground for crime,” Lucas promoted the toughening of laws to include permits, surveillance cameras and large insurance policies.
According to the mayor’s office, the expansion of the ordinance includes:
- Enhanced response to violent offenses: A single violent offense combined with one other qualifying incident within six months will trigger review by the Neighborhood Services Department.
- Lower threshold for standard cases: The number of incidents required to qualify as a chronic nuisance within 180 days has been reduced from seven to five.
- Expedited timeline for violent cases: Property owners will have 10 days to develop an abatement plan for violent offenses, compared to 30 days for nonviolent offenses.
- Expanded reporting mechanisms: The Neighborhood Services Department will now rely on reports from the Kansas City Police Department, licensed private security services providers and the city's multidisciplinary public safety task force.
