Save Robin Hood Lanes: Another bowling alley threatened

BY Stephanie Klein  on January 20, 2012 @ 4:05 pm (Updated: 11:06 am - 1/21/12 )

Love pulling on those well worn shoes and sinking your fingers into the holes of a bowling ball?

The folks with "Rally for the Alley" want your help saving Robin Hood Lanes in Edmonds. It's just one more bowling alley in the region that could end up becoming a condo or strip mall. Actually, in this case, a Walgreens.

Luke says killing a bowling alley is destroying a piece of Americana.

"I feel like they're these great time capsules of American culture. You can take the kids there and have a beer."

But, Luke says, not the Lucky Strike bowling alleys. A true alley "smells like shoes and has dingy carpet."

Teri Terrano, a protest organizer who pays $20 every Tuesday night to bowl at Robin Hood, says the "bowling alley is absolutely packed. There's over 1,000 league bowlers who bowl there each week."

She says bowlers range from seniors to little kids to high schoolers.

Terrano admits in the end, they probably won't be able to save Robin Hood Lanes from the bulldozers, but says she's still holding out hope. The Edmonds Beacon reports 1,500 people have already signed an online petition to stop Walgreens from replacing the alley.

If you've driven past Robin Hood Lanes, you know that the potential new Walgreens would be going in across the street from another pharmacy (Bartell's) and the QFC. Terrano says they hardly need another place to fill prescriptions.

Terrano says Walgreens has submitted the permits to the City of Edmonds, but they haven't been approved yet. Apparently there has been some disagreement between the owners of Robin Hood Lanes, building owners, and land owners about the future of the bowling alley.

Luke has a curse for the likes who have mowed over Sunset Bowl and Leilani Lanes in Greenwood, and now for Walgreens.

"To the people who end up living in the condos that are built above Sunset Lanes, may the echoes of all of the pins dropping haunt your nightscape. May it be like a cursed Native American burial ground of bowling and fun. And I would extend the same curse to whoever puts a Walgreens on top of Robin Hood Lanes. May all of your prescriptions be filled slightly incorrectly because of the tears of all the of the bowlers you've destroyed."

Terrano says she's trying to get The Dude from The Big Lebowski to attend the rally, to which Luke says, "He (Jeff Dowd) will show up anywhere."

By Stephanie Klein, MyNorthwest.com Editor

Stephanie Klein, MyNorthwest.com Editor
Stephanie joined the MyNorthwest.com team in February 2008. She has built the site into a two-time National Edward R. Murrow Award winner (Best Radio Website 2010, 2012).
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Comments (24)


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  • Chuck Gould wrote...
    Robin Hood Lanes? Robin Hood in reverse, maybe
    January 20, 2012 5:32 pm
    Robin Hood notoriously stole from the rich to give to the poor. (Modern conservatives would accuse him of being a liberal Democrat).

    Robin Hood Lanes; a gathering place for the humbler classes and beer-swilling masses. How ironic that it may soon succumb to a wrecking ball and a soul-less, cookie cutter, formulaic, representation of a very rich retail organization will rise from the dust.

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  • the shiner wrote...
    chuckin' it
    January 20, 2012 11:07 pm
    oh chuck-
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  • Howdy wrote...
    "you can take kids there and have a beer"
    January 21, 2012 6:37 am
    Do they serve minors?
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • anotherfencewalker wrote...
    Fun Fact!
    January 21, 2012 7:48 am
    The ban on indoor smoking in a public place was the end of the line for bowling alleys. You could smoke, drink and throw a big-a55 ball down the lane and then go for some died in the wool diner food all in the same place. Great entertainment and a bargain price too..
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  • HPD 5-0 wrote...
    God, love you Chuck.
    January 21, 2012 1:59 pm
    Yes, we should "save" an economically nonviable entity all for the sake of nostalgia and the poor, humbler folks. Tell that to the property owner. Last time I checked, we still had the rights of private property in this country. Although if we leave it to liberals, they will try to destroy THAT too.
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  • Chuck Gould wrote...
    God loves everyone of us, warts and all. So, HPD 5-0; when you watch a Robin Hood movie,
    January 21, 2012 3:56 pm
    do you root for the Sheriff of Nottingham? :-)

    What could possibly be more objectionable than stealing from the rich and giving the proceeds to the poor?

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  • anotherfencewalker wrote...
    Here's how it all mostly works..
    January 21, 2012 2:50 pm
    Many of those old time Bowling venues got their start in suburban, out of the way places where the property values at the time were low and in locations where (as I think Chuck put it) the more "humbler" population resided. Trailer trash but no trailers.. As time passed, these bits of property became more high valued and attractive to larger big box style business among others, and were compounded by mega apartment complexes and cluster residential housing. What's that mean? Property taxes that once were, are no more. Low rents and sweetheart lease deals??.History. These bowling alleys take up a lot of real estate and that means a ton of outlay each year being paid to the feds and state governments just to use the space. Just like Drive-in theaters, the dirt became more valuable and attractive to big business and strip malls. It has nothing to do with left or right, red or blue so cut the lib this and that crap. It's how business has evolved since the 50's and whomever can buy their way into the immediate opportunity's will win out every time. A worn thin and dejected bowling Alley owner will take Walmart money every time..Ain't America Great??
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  • Chuck Gould wrote...
    This is probably a ground lease issue, not the demise of an economically obsolete business
    January 21, 2012 4:08 pm
    I get the impression from the phrase, "Apparently there has been some disagreement between the owners of Robin Hood Lanes, building owners, and land owners about the future of the bowling alley," that Robin Hood Lanes owns neither the building in which it is located nor the ground beneath the building.

    The owner of the building may have a "ground lease" on the real estate, and when that ground lease expires the owner of the ground has no further obligation to make it available for use by the person or corporation that built the building.

    Moral of the story, if you want to be certain you have a sustainable business don't rent your location.

    It could well be that the bowling alley itself is churning out amazing profits. Maybe the owner of the real estate is considering a proposition similar to, "I can continue to collect $100,000 per year from the owner of the building (who in turn collects $200,000 from the owner of the bowling alley), or I can sell out to Walgreens for $3-million cash in fist today."

    A decision to sell to Walgreens doesn't automatically mean that the bowling alley is failing.

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  • clevesside wrote...
    The problem is.....
    January 21, 2012 5:22 pm
    ....too many similar businesses in a tiny area down there in the Westgate area of Edmonds, not unlike Lynnwood, where chains come and go. Albertson's couldn't hold up to QFC across the street and became PCC. Bartell's is firmly planted there at the corner if they have to roll proverbial rocks at the new Walgreen's, when it comes. Parking is at a premium and just waiting for the next big lot operator to come forth (urban creep). Bowling alleys? You go to Majestic or start your own, like the new Acme Lanes in Tukwila, which is the best idea for an amusement center/bowling lanes in years. Luke there is hope, but you must search for it.
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  • Burn_Notice wrote...
    Sloppy writing..
    January 21, 2012 10:45 pm
    ..but what else is new at MYNW. "Luke says killing a bowling alley is destroying a piece of Americana."

    You might want to identify who "Luke" is. Is it Luke Burbank, Luke Skywalker, Luke Duke, or Luke Perry?

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  • baylesl wrote...
    RE: Sloppy writing
    January 22, 2012 12:45 pm
    The piece is posted under Ross and Burbank's blog and is transcribing/summarizing a conversation that took place on the air. It doesn't seem sloppy to assume that people reading the blog know which Luke is being referenced.
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  • melidda wrote...
    ignorance
    January 22, 2012 3:34 pm
    It blows me away how this dribble gets comments from a bunch of poorly employed cretins and the SIPA /SOPA story gets no comment at all. The congressional reversal of support for these bills has much more affect your empty lives than anything else on the web. Get educated and comment on issues that actually matter. Fools.
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  • Chuck Gould wrote...
    And melidda, the only thing possibly more foolish than commenting on the demise of Robin Hood Lanes,
    January 22, 2012 8:40 pm
    would be commenting on the people commenting.

    Hurry off now, somebody needs your input on SIPA/SOPA

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