Yesterday, it was announced that the Gold Dome building will be repurposed and remodeled to fit a wholly unnecessary Natural Grocers, an overpriced niche grocery store/vitamin and supplement dealer that just adds one more building block to the gentrification of NW 23rd, or Uptown if you’re nasty.
When I first moved back here from Colorado a few years ago, I was amazed how many touchstones and landmarks I grew up with hadn’t changed in the slightest, starting with the whimsically multi-colored Truong-Thanh supermarket, a staple of my childhood since Classen Fifth Year Center as our bus would zoom past it and Soul Boutique and the various black hair-care outlets, of which there were assuringly many.