Bowling for dollars

If Kona Lanes goes the way of the Ice Capades, the Fish Fry Parade

and other Costa Mesa landmarks and traditions that have passed into

memory, we too will lament its loss.

Bowling is a piece of Americana. It is a family pastime of old

that leaves many of us with nostalgic memories.

But nostalgia doesn’t pay the bills. And just like the drive-in

movie screens before it, bowling alleys are fading from the

landscape, mainly because hardly anyone goes there anymore.

Kona Lanes is no exception. It is a piece of the past trying to

roll a hook into the future, but right now, we’re seeing nothing but

gutter balls.

C.J. Segerstrom and Sons, the owners of the Mesa Verde Center on

whose edge Kona Lanes sits, has decided to move forward with plans

for the refurbishment of that property.

Those plans call for the demolition of Kona Lanes and the nearby

vacant Ice Capades. In place will be built a new Kohl’s department

store, a Midwest transplant that has taken off like wildfire.

We will withhold judgment on whether or not Kohl’s is good or bad

for the community. It’s way too early to tell.

But what we do know is that residents who are naturally upset over

the loss of Kona Lanes need to be realistic. They need to understand

that if a business can’t succeed, then something else takes its

place.

The Segerstrom owners know this evolutionary law of the

marketplace all too well.

“Independent of the merits or demerits of Kohl’s, any discussion

of the bowling ally should be understanding of the marketplace for

bowling, and it ain’t that good,” Segerstrom executive Paul Freeman

said. “That’s just the way it is.”

He’s right.

It may not be the what everyone wants to hear, it may not be what

we want to hear, but saving the Kona Lanes from the wrecking ball

will be like nailing a 7-10 split.