Lane resurfacing isn’t just for roads: West Seattle Bowl, too

| West Seattle businesses | West Seattle news | WS & Sports

While out in The Junction covering the car-on-side crash Tuesday afternoon, we noticed a forklift in action over by West Seattle Bowl. Further investigation revealed that, like nearby Fauntleroy Way, West Seattle Bowl is embarking on midst of lane-resurfacing work. Materials arrived yesterday and were moved into place, and prep work will continue for the rest of the week. West Seattle Bowl’s Jeff Swanson tells WSB that over the next three or four weeks, they’ll resurface two lanes at a time – all the others will be open, so no change in hours or operations expected.

JBL June 24, 2009 (12:41 pm)

Maybe you can also ask them why they aren’t having their patrons parking in their own garage; which is totally empty all the time! Instead everyone parks all over my street (my house is kiddy corner to the WSB) which makes me and my neighbors park a block from our own house!

I had heard June 24, 2009 (1:03 pm)

I bowl there all the time and DID ask them. The reason is that the garage isn’t legally allowed to be used as a public ‘parking’ lot. It doesn’t have a security camera, lighting, elevator, signage and/or any bunch of other ‘nit picky’ things the city/stage requires for making it an official parking area. It was built WAY BACK when those things weren’t required, and just not used in ages as such. So making it a public lot now would be prohibitively expensive for the business.

I understand what you mean about public parking on the street (I live near Alki myself) but get over it. It is PUBLIC parking, it’s not YOUR parking, it doesn’t belong to you. If you want your own private parking for your property, you’re MORE then welcome to park on your land (just build a driveway). Problem solved! If you choose not to, and rely on just the luck of finding a ‘public’ parking spot (while living NEXT to a business area) then so be it, that’s your choice. Or if you live in an apartment building that choose not to have on-site parking, you can bitch at the owners, but again, you should think of things like that when you look at places to rent. You have no right or expectation that there will be a ‘free’ spot on the street in front of your house. Your neighbor, visitors or anyone who wants can park there. Street parking IS first come first serve, as annoying as that can be sometimes. ;-)

beef June 24, 2009 (1:35 pm)

The street is not your personal parking space, no matter how long you have been parking there. Your taxes and my taxes pay for that street.

And wow, you have to park a whole block away from your house.

Johnny Davies June 24, 2009 (1:43 pm)

I’m a league bowler there – not affiliated with the bowl in any other way. I feel your pain JBL, cause I have renters, bus riders, car/boat collectors & whatnot park in front of my house & I know it can be frustrating at times. From what I’ve heard that lot beneath the bowl is kept unavailable to the public because it is a dark, unlit area and probably impossible to keep safe for patrons as well as the surrounding community. If it were open, I could only imagine the epicenter for mischief that could create down there. Car prowls, drugs, drinking, vagrant activity and possibly worse.
.
Before the “hole foods” fiasco, bowl patrons could utilize the Hancock parking lot. Without that as an option now, patrons have to spill out into the other available parking on city streets. Keep in mind that these people are taxpayers and are not trying to personally put you out of your way, rather they’re just parking their cars on city streets, which is perfectly their right – if parked there temporarily.

BAG June 24, 2009 (2:17 pm)

The insurance company wont the bowl let its patrons park in the lot below the building as they feel it would be to great of a risk. The garage is only accessible from behind the building and it is poorly lit.

JBL June 24, 2009 (2:36 pm)

Every time I come home from work, I don’t expect the space in front of my house to be open. It’s a public street and everyone that pays taxes and has a vehicle has every right to park there. I don’t think I own that space at all and it isn’t a big deal to walk a block to my front door BEEF. It’s just that when I bought my house there was never a problem parking on my street. There was this huge parking lot that everyone from the church and the bowling alley used. But when that was ripped up and turned into a hole, I couldn’t help but wonder why the bowling alley wasn’t utilizing their lot. It was being rented to the Huling lots from what I’ve heard before. Now my question is answered and thank you! But how much would a few lights cost to put in the garage? They have an internal stairwell so why would they need an elevator? They could afford all those spanking new bowling lanes…why not make the garage usable? I bet customers would appreciate that.

B June 24, 2009 (2:38 pm)

So true Johnny, it wasn’t a big deal until the “hole” was put in. I live over behind the the bowling alley and for the most part we don’t have too many people clogging the street. It is unrealistic though to say to townhome owners to “build our own driveway” though when we don’t have property to do so. I think what gets me the most is that people don’t actually know HOW to park and waste a number of spots. That doesn’t just apply to bolwing alley patrons. (I really like the bowling alley and the Chinese food!) I’m ready to take to the streets with a white spray can and mark out the spots for people who need a little help! :)

John Woodworth June 24, 2009 (3:49 pm)

I had heard,
These requirements are not ‘nit picky’ things from the city. They are what any prudent business owner should provide for the safety and comfort of their customers, and in some instances are a legal requirement to provide. The elevator is not necessarily needed or required in this situation so we are not talking about huge amounts of money to upgrade the parking lot. Even though the building was built ‘WAY BACK’ it was likely required to provide the parking to avoid an adverse impact on the neighborhood. A little research at DPD might shed some light on this.

Looks like to me the bowling alley has let their own parking lot deteriorate to the point the only option is to use the lot next door (now gone) or use the available street parking. They benefited financially for many years when renting the lot below to Huling to store their cars, maybe they could put some of the $ back to provide parking for their own customers.

I don’t believe that I have the right to park in front of my house or apartment, but I also don’t believe that a business of this size should get a free ride on parking when they have their own lot. I can’t say I would park down there but I should have the option. Oh yeah, Glow Bowl rocks.

JEM June 24, 2009 (4:03 pm)

BOO to synthetic lanes!

Chunk June 24, 2009 (5:11 pm)

I’m with you JEM, Boo to the plastic lane, I’m a hard wood fan ;)

Dreamland June 24, 2009 (5:26 pm)

Back to the lane resurfacing…I’m glad to see this happening. Rather than having the alley razed and turned into apartments that will never be built (see Sunset Bowl in Ballard as an example). This is pretty much the last bowling alley in city limits now, isn’t it? Good for them, refurbishing.

sam June 24, 2009 (9:04 pm)

I agree with Dreamland- glad they investing in themselves, making a commitment to stick around. but, are the lanes really not going to be wood anymore?
:(

WSB June 24, 2009 (9:34 pm)

You know, we didn’t say anything about the materials. I don’t believe we asked – the point of our impromptu story was just, we saw a forklift, we wandered in and inquired. So I don’t know if that’s true or not but we’ll ask …Meantime, I thought we’d talked to them once about the under-the-alleys parking but can’t find it in the archives. For anyone interested, we did a feature story on WS Bowl in February of last year, with some interesting points on techy upgrades they had and were in the process of making:
https://westseattleblog.com/blog/?p=5734

-TR

HomeOnBeachDrive June 24, 2009 (10:54 pm)

I’m a little unsure of the new lane surface myself. But I’m not an Olympic level bowler where the exact drag of the lane surface/wax is going to keep me from a 300 game. I’ll bowl my same crappy 130 on the new lanes I’m sure. :)