NEW YORK » As New York struggles to resurrect its economy, it needs powerful new engines of growth. Wall Street might look sturdier, but it will never be the old Wall Street again, when $10 routinely became $1 million during your lunch break. Another eruption in real estate prices? Dubious. The new sports stadiums? Not going to get us there.

There must be an answer.

There is.

Bowling alleys.

Been over to the Port Authority Bus Terminal for anything other than a bus? Gone to the second floor, next to Gate 230? Noticed the velvet ropes staffed by a black-suited bouncer, earpiece nuzzling his ear?

Why is he there? To select the appropriate customers to bowl at the overhauled Leisure Time Bowl. Yes, there is a dress code at the bowling alley.

“;We don't allow those real large jeans that almost fall off your hips,”; said Ayman Kamel, the executive general manager there. “;Or those bandannas that represent gangs. None of those big visual gold chains.”;

How about a bowling shirt?

“;Well, as long as it's a fine-looking shirt,”; he said.

By month's end, the place will be renamed Frames, and it will open a swank restaurant and VIP lanes (two private lanes with bar), followed by a nightclub later in the year. The entrance will be on Ninth Avenue since the Port Authority is, well, the Port Authority.

Farther down the block, at 42nd and 12th Avenue, is Lucky Strike Lanes, another upscale alley that opened late in 2008 and is an offshoot of a chain that began in Hollywood and is thinking about opening alleys in other boroughs. In Greenwich Village, there is Bowlmor Lanes, a front-runner among the contemporized alleys that was restyled under new ownership in 1997. Three months ago it opened a companion Coney Island games-and-burlesque club called Carnival.

In October, a 90,000-square-foot Bowlmor alley is set to open as the largest retail tenant in the former New York Times building on West 43rd Street. It will cost over $20 million.

In 2007, a comforter factory in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, became the Gutter bar, with a retro eight-lane alley, the first new one to open in Brooklyn in half a century. Brooklyn Bowl, a combination music club/bowling alley fashioned out of an old iron foundry, followed in Williamsburg last summer. Harlem Lanes arrived in 2006 on West 126th Street, the first bowling alley in Harlem since the Lenox Lanes vanished in the 1980s. These join the more established 300 New York alley at Chelsea Piers.

OK, maybe this trend isn't big enough to lift the entire city, but it's something.

These are not the beer-belly bowling alleys of yesteryear, but souped-up, hipster alleys often interwoven with restaurants, VIP lounges, clubs, sports bars. Dark lighting. Deejays and thundering music. Videos dancing over flat-screen televisions above the pins. Waiter service. Dress codes. Coolness.

The bowling is often a way to kill time between drink orders. The alleys rely heavily on corporate and private parties. Some customers never bother to bowl.

Meanwhile, conventional alleys continue to close. In 2008, Woodhaven Lanes in Queens fell after 49 years, and Van Wyck Lanes in Richmond Hill surrendered the same year after 48. All told, there are 23 bowling alleys in the city, according to the U.S. Bowling Congress, the sport's governing body. Back in the 1970s, it figured there were close to 200. Throughout the country, there has been a continuing and pronounced decline in organized league bowling, though a rise in the number of people who bowl occasionally (which can mean once a year).

Bowlmor is owned by Strike Holdings, and at its downtown headquarters, Thomas Shannon, the chief executive, spoke about the old bowling, and the new bowling that might save New York. “;It used to be that if you wanted to go bowling, you had to suffer some form of deprivation,”; he said. “;Bad food — you know, the hot dog on a roller. Stale tap beer. No service.”;

Bowlmor and the upscale alleys typically shun leagues. They don't want guys who show up with bowling outfits and excessive stomachs and their own equipment and want to pay $1.95 a game.

“;They want the cheapest, most miserable experience,”; Shannon said. “;I would describe it as a Stalinist experience.”;

At Bowlmor, games are generally $11 to $13.

Shannon showed plans for the forthcoming Times Square alley. Adorning the entrance will be Bowlmor Bob, a giant bowler in a red dinner jacket. The front desk will have a concierge. When you get bowling shoes, you can have your street shoes shined for another few dollars.

The 50 lanes will be separated into six themed areas. The Chinatown section will feature a gong to bang when you get a strike. To select the food, Shannon said he was negotiating with a “;celebrity chef.”;

Considering all this, Shannon wonders why his industry doesn't get more credit. When was the last time the mayor singled out bowling alleys for their contribution to the economy?

“;I don't think many people in government appreciate us,”; Shannon said.

Over at Bowlmor on University Place, the lanes were crammed, people blissfully saving New York's economy while dressed to impress. In a glass case near the lanes was a nice touch: autographed bowling pins. Christina Ricci. Rudolph W. Giuliani. Method Man. Monica S. Lewinsky.

The other evening at Leisure Time, owned by a Danish company called Big Bowl (yes, they bowl in Denmark), people were bowling but not bowling well. Scores were pathetic. 51. 17. 7.

They sure were drinking. The signature drink is the beer tower, a tube that holds 11 pints of beer.

Kamel, the general manager, does allow leagues, but social leagues, not league leagues. He said that with some of these social league members, they have to actually show them how to bowl.

He pointed out the bar top for the soon-to-open restaurant. Onyx. Cost: $100,000.

At Lucky Strike, Ron Garcia, 36, a biotech salesman, was entertaining a friend visiting from the West Coast who had last gripped a bowling ball seven years ago. Strikes were infrequent.

How did he feel about saving New York simply by leveling bowling pins?

“;Good,”; he said. “;It's always good to save New York.”;

It would be rude to ignore hardened bowlers. They want to bowl, too.

Cozy Lanes in Ozone Park, Queens, has 64 lanes. The food? Let's not go there. A VIP lounge? None planned (though a White Castle sits next door).

Leagues are always going. No rock music muffles the sweet crack of pins falling. As someone wrote in an online comment, it's not a place where you need to bring a credit card and pursue a second mortgage on your home to bowl.

The place has a tired feel. Scuffed linoleum. Bowlers grouse about their balls coming back with nicks and scratches.

The other day, the A.J. Transit Early Birds league was knocking down pins, paying about $3 a game. The members did not voice much enthusiasm for the fancy alleys.

One of them, T.C. Newsome, 72, a retired transit worker carrying a 190 average, completed a spare. Of the new alleys, he said: “;It's not bowling. It's for the younger generation that wants instant gratification. In bowling, it doesn't just come. You have to practice.”;

He rolled another frame, scattering eight pins. “;I'm stiff,”; he said. “;Can't get my knee started.”;

Down a few lanes was John Sutton, 68, with a 188 average.

Can bowling save the city?

“;Maybe that disco bowling can,”; he said. “;But it's not saving bowlers. It's not saving me.”;