SLO’s Bubblegum Alley featured in landmark-themed board game. Here’s how to get it
Bubblegum Alley is one of the 49 locations included in Big Potato’s Zillionaires Road Trip USA, a self-described “auction party game.”
The board game was developed earlier this year and released in June, public relations representative Elizabeth Tran said. Big Potato Games decided to include Bubblegum Alley because of its “quirky mentality,” which is a theme for the company’s games.
Players start with $49 zillion, and bid on different locations. Whoever bids on four connecting spots wins the game. Other locations include the last Blockbuster store in Oregon and Lucy the Elephant in New Jersey.
Zillionaires Roadtrip USA is sold online and in stores, retailing for $24.99, according to the bigpotato.com website.
Big Potato Games wanted to “embrace the quirkiness in this game by looking at some really unique attractions,” Tran said.
Since its beginning, Bubblegum Alley has faced criticism from local businesses and residents for its appearance. Despite this, Executive Director of the SLO History Center Thomas Kessler believes that the alley holds “emblematic” significance on a larger level.
“There’s an important, valuable degree of disagreement within the community on where we want to go, what we want to do, who we want to be, what we want to look like, what we want to smell like,” Kessler said.
Kessler said that San Luis Obispo has a “dichotomy” that allows the alley to exist, including the disagreement and support over Bubblegum Alley. As a kid, Kessler remembers visiting his grandparents in Morro Bay and going to the alley.
Historians believe that a rivalry between San Luis Obispo High School and Cal Poly started the wall, or it originated after WWII, according to the city. The alley was previously nominated in 2013 as an eighth wonder of the world by a former travel website.
“I think hopefully, if people haven’t heard of these landmarks before, it might make them a little bit more interested in maybe digging into these landmarks a little bit further and to you know, maybe one day go to the location and visit it,” Tran said.