We fought it for 18 months, but forces stronger than us were in action. We felt the Golden Bowl was something good for a community, good for people to come together and spend time in a simple, fun way. Of course, it needed remodeling, of course, it needed updating… Having been a neighbor of the bowling alley for 17 years, through four owners, I’d say that the fault lies in the last two landlords who bought the property just for the purpose of demolition. They didn’t run the bowling alley themselves, but planned to tear it down to sell for development purposes. Why would they want to put money into making it nicer? That wouldn’t make sense, but that’s exactly what it needed, a caring touch. Golden folks support businesses like the Golden Bowl, but they need to be clean, wholesome, family places. Not that the Golden Bowl wasn’t wholesome, but it needed some remodeling. We put an offer in to buy it but it was not accepted. In our other attempts to keep it as a bowling alley, we contacted the city numerous times with no avail, the Park and Recreation board, no luck, our city councilers, no response, GURA – encouraged us to move, etc. We support Natural Grocers and love their stores and wish them the best.
