Showing posts with label lack of grocery stores in wichita. Show all posts

Jul 15, 2014

What's Up in Wichita with Abandoned Houses, Lack of Grocery Stores, Health Care and Birth Control.......

Cindy Mann ....here is an inspirational reply to the story first.......

The Obama administration did not declare war on aviation. Maybe someday the republicans will learn to accept

responsibility and stop blaming everyone for the messes they make. And for the past six years the only person that has

been working is President Obama. Meanwhile the republican controlled congress has turned every breath he takes into a

scandal. And, offered nothing....except hate for the federal government...and hate for our first african american

president. The republican congress is possibly the worst in history. You can't blame the problems in Ks aviation on

President Obama. Where you find a red state, you usually find a failed state.

......exactly.....you've got Mike Pompeo saying he is against the ACA to save jobs....that is an out and out lie. I would like him to answer for that statement.

Also you've got the council recently voting against birth control.....what is going on?

In the lower income area there are not even grocery stores in walking distance. How will someone get food if they do not have a car.

Some of these things can easily be improved......health care for everyone with easy access to birth control, grocery stores with easy access in the low income areas and stop spreading the lies about President Obama--he is doing a fabulous job. He has given us healthcare and stood up for women.

There is nothing to be gained by the crazy conservatism here....one person stopped being friends with me because I supported President Obama.

Seriously, the person was misinformed by his church, of all things--and wasn't even having it when it came to a political discussion.

Stop the lies--get the groceries and get on with it--Wichita is basically a very nice place.

Chloe Louise--the ronnie republic and What's Up Wichita.........always looking for contributors--agree or disagree.

from the Wichita Eagle.......

Wichita real estate officials view latest ranking of ‘abandoned’ homes with skepticism

By Jerry Siebenmark
The Wichita Eagle

Published Monday, July 14, 2014, at 1:23 p.m.
Updated Monday, July 14, 2014, at 5:09 p.m.

Photos

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Mike Hutmacher/ The Wichita Eagle | Buy this photo

A house on South Volutsia that went through foreclosure in 2013.

Wichita has the distinction of having the highest percentage of vacant foreclosed houses in the nation, according to a report from an online company, but area real estate officials said Monday that the numbers don’t say much – if anything – about the state of the area’s housing market.

Wall Street 24/7, an Internet-based financial news and opinion service, said based on its analysis of data of 100 metropolitan areas, Wichita had the highest percentage — 49 percent — of foreclosed homes that were vacant. It said of 301 properties in foreclosure in the second quarter of 2014, 146 were vacant. The data studied came from the real estate company RealtyTrac.

“Honestly I don’t think it means very much,” said Stan Longhofer, director of the Center for Real Estate at Wichita State University. “Percentages are always misleading when you deal with that low of a base.”

For example, Longhofer added, “If we had two houses in foreclosure in Sedgwick County and all of a sudden, next year we had four, that would be a 100 percent increase.”

Some publications, such as USA Today, have picked up the report, calling the vacant homes in foreclosure, “abandoned.”

Greg Fox, president of the South Central Kansas Multiple Listing Service and owner of real estate brokerage Realty World Alliance, said, “We don’t have very many foreclosures going on if we’ve got 300.”

According to RealtyTrac‘s website, as of May one in every 4,697 houses in Sedgwick County was in foreclosure. That compares with one in every 2,861 houses in foreclosure in Kansas, and one in every 1,199 houses in foreclosure in the U.S., according to RealtyTrac.

Longhofer said once a house goes into foreclosure, it doesn’t mean the house is immediately vacated by the home owner. The foreclosure process takes months, and it’s generally not until much later in the process — after the lender has filed a court action to foreclose — that the owner is evicted.

“I think given the numbers we’re dealing with here, they were previously renter occupied or purchased for that reason, or it (the vacant house) was in a situation where the previous owner moved out ... (and the house is) not inhabitable,” he said.

here is a link to the story and there are also some very inspirational comments:

http://www.kansas.com/2014/07/14/3552861/local-real-estate-officials-view.html

Read more here: http://www.kansas.com/2014/07/14/3552861/local-real-estate-officials-view.html#storylink=cpy

Jul 9, 2014

from What's Up Wichita: Hey, There's Not Any Place to Buy Groceries

Seriously, after recently moving to Wichita without a car I realized I was in a grocery no-man's land..........finally walking to the Dollar store where nothing was a dollar......frustration set in.
Actually, if one lives over by WSU there is no where in the world to walk and get food.....how do the poor people, like me, do it.
At the end of the day...the closest food is McDonalds.....while everyone enjoys their dollar menu it is not nutritious for everyday fare.
In the place where inexpensive groceries are needed with easy access--walking--it just does not exist.
Right, I couldn't believe it.....why.
Shall we ask Mike Pompeo......since he is against healthcare for Wichita citizens is he against quality food at a fair price, too.......will he address these issues.....does he care......does his mom care.....
Neighbors concerned about effects of Wichita Dillons closings

By Matt Riedl and Dion Lefler
The Wichita Eagle

Published Tuesday, July 8, 2014, at 9:58 p.m.
Updated Tuesday, July 8, 2014, at 11:30 p.m.

Photos

1 of 1

Travis Heying/ The Wichita Eagle | Buy this photo

Shoppers enter and leave the Dillons store near Broadway and Harry on Tuesday. Dillons announced that the store would be one of two in Wichita slated to close.

Dillons to close two Wichita stores

Growing up across the street from the angular green-and-brick Dillons store at Harry and Broadway, Amber and Ashlee Kimminau would walk to the store almost daily, for anything from fruit to a quick soda.

The location, along with the Dillons at 13th and Woodlawn, is set to close after 61 years of operation, because it has not performed up to expectations and its location is not conducive to renovations or expansion.

“The assembled fact is there are houses all around here, and they need a Dillons,” Amber Kimminau said. “It’s an oldie, but it’s a good one.”

Neighborhood residents worry that when the stores close July 19, they will become part of a “food desert,” a term for low-income areas more than a mile from the nearest full-service grocery store.

Wichita already has 44 square miles of food desert, according to a survey last year by the Health and Welfare Coalition, a partnership of the Wichita YMCA, city and county government, the Kansas Health Foundation, the Metro Chamber of Commerce and a host of local businesses with an interest in community health.

“One-fourth of our Wichita population lives in a food desert,” said Becky Tuttle, a staff member with the coalition.

She said it’s uncertain whether the closing of the two Dillons stores will expand the food desert or, if it does, by how much.

But it is highly likely that the loss of the two stores will make it more difficult for some in core areas to get access to fruits, vegetables, grain products and lean proteins, the four staple groups that improve individual and community health, she said.

Tuttle said the closures will mean that at least some residents, particularly those who rely on public transportation, will have to go farther to get their groceries and could choose to supplement their diets more often with convenience-store food.

The coalition study found that while nearly half of convenience stores offer fresh fruit – such as apples, bananas and oranges – fewer than 1 in 10 offer fresh vegetables.

Dillons, a division of the grocery giant Kroger Co., did take that into consideration when choosing to close the stores, but it was a business decision that had to be made, said company spokeswoman Sheila Lowrie.

“In all honesty, we have to look at the operations from a business perspective, just as any other retailer would,” she said. “If we have a location that has deteriorating sales and has been underperforming for some time, we have to absorb the costs of that business, of that store, in all areas of our company.”

Dillons won’t provide specifics on just how underperforming the stores were, but the clear trend was that business was moving away from smaller stores toward the bigger supermarkets with wider variety, discounts on gasoline and other amenities.

“With our customers, what we’re seeing from their shopping habits is they’re choosing to shop with us at some of our larger, newly renovated store locations where they can find everything like fresh produce, natural foods and maybe some of the additional amenities like Starbucks or sushi,” Lowrie said.

The Kansas Health Institute recently analyzed community food access as part of a larger study into the city bus system and found many residents struggle to bring home enough healthy food.

“It was particularly true for low-income neighborhoods, because they don’t have alternative modes of transportation to get to the other stores,” said Tatiana Lin, senior analyst and strategy team leader for the institute. “They don’t have additional discretionary funds to pay for gas. It increases their likelihood to rely on convenience stores or Dollar General in the area.”

The loss of the Dillons stores, both of which were on bus routes, could be a further obstacle for people to get the kind of food they need, said Sheena Smith, an analyst who worked with Lin on the study.

Dillons closed four urban stores in Wichita in 2008: 13th and Waco, Central and Oliver, Douglas and Meridian and Lincoln and Hydraulic.

The company kept its store at Douglas and Hillside and built a new and larger store at Harry and Edgemoor that took up some of the slack. The rest of the company’s stores form a more or less ringlike suburban constellation around the urban core.

Longtime south Wichita resident David Bonfiglio said he’s worried his neighborhood Dillons will become another “shuttered store front on neglected South Broadway.”

“This is going to be a huge blow to the neighborhood,” Bonfiglio said.

“It’s one of the most vulnerable areas of Wichita. Many customers here walk to the store, ride their bicycles to the store – now they have miles and miles left to go.”

While there is a Wal-Mart relatively close to the neighborhood – at Pawnee and Broadway, a mile south of the Dillons – the Kimminaus said they fear the corner will go the way of 13th and Waco. Dillons closed its store there in 2008, which “killed everything” in the neighborhood, Ashlee Kimminau said.

“So what if it’s not a super-Dillons?” she said of the Broadway store. “I think it’s just perfect for people around the neighborhood. It feels like they’re taking from the poor.”

Bob Goudy, 79, said he has been going to the Dillons at 13th and Woodlawn for “someteen years.”

Now, he said, he will make arrangements to go to the nearby Walmart Neighborhood Market at 13th and Oliver or the Dillons Marketplace at Central and Rock Road.

“I can see a pattern in the area,” Goudy said. “It was nice to be able to walk here when the weather was nice enough, but it won’t affect me too much.”

Bonfiglio said he hopes the company will reconsider its decision to close the locations.

“I hope Dillons will look at the numbers again and decide that they’re better off serving this community,” he said.

Reach Dion Lefler at 316-268-6527 or dlefler@wichitaeagle.com.

copied from the wichita eagle.com or kansas.com

from the ronnie republic and what's up wichita........

Hey, what do you think is going on in Wichita........

the Dillons is closing....I can't walk for groceries in Wichita...what about you:

http://theronnierepublic.blogspot.com/2014/07/from-whats-up-wichita-hey-theres-not.html

Talking about the high prices at the "Dollar" Stores.......

http://theronnierepublic.blogspot.com/2014/03/whats-up-with-dollar-stores-in-wichita.html

Talking about Mike Pompeo--is he right about ObamaCare...

http://theronnierepublic.blogspot.com/2014/06/tell-me-mike-pompeo-how-will-obamacare.html