You may have heard of third places before, but in case it’s new to you, they’re essentially community spaces where you can chill & socialize…Like here, I suppose! But typically they refer to in-person community spaces.
Does your area of the world still have a number of these, or are they in the decline? Do you know if your in-person communities are trying to establish or renovate theirs to help people connect or reconnect with one another?
I’m in a small rural town in the south Puget Sound area of the Pacific Northwest in the good old USofA. I’ve only been here two years, having previously lived in OR, WI, and AZ. Back in OR there was a neat old western saloon building called “The Clubhouse” that housed a whole bunch of neat stuff. There was an arcade and a snack bar. A restaurant and barber shop on the top floor. Lots of big rooms that could be booked for events and stuff. It was free to hang out and socialize in and then food and drink etc cost money.
Since then, I have not experienced anything similarly and it makes me sad. Everything outside my house is monetized except the public library and who knows how long that will last.
I wish we could have a “community rec center” or something like that. It’s far too easy to remain disconnected from the communities in which we live and that’s super sad.
My home state is pretty well known for having some thriving third places historically, but they are shrinking now. The city I currently live in lacks such places.
