why third spaces are sacred
mapping the demise and re-desire of third spaces. exploring the importance they play in battling loneliness and nurturing scenes
why third spaces are sacred
“To inspire and nurture the human spirit – one person one cup and one neighborhood at a time.” Schultz vowed to “transform the Starbucks experience” with main goals that included improving the current state of the US business, reigniting the brand’s emotional attachment with customers, and planning for the future while expanding its presence around
... See moreMMF • Starbucks
Many people on Twitter/X shared images from local parks with “no ball throwing” and other no-loitering-esque signs actively deterring children and teens from enjoying the space. People have every right to be angry about these cases, that there are few places to simply be. But even these situations can be traced in part to our phone-centric culture.... See more
Matter
Wherever there are people – in buildings, in neighborhoods, in city centers, in recreational areas, and so on – it is generally true that people and human activities attract other people. People are attracted to other people. They gather with and move about with others and seek to place themselves near others. New activities begin in the vicinity
... See moreJan Gehl • Life Between Buildings: Using Public Space
There are indeed few places for teenagers to hang out outside of the home. Skate parks are being turned into pickleball courts with “no loitering” signs, malls are shuttering and you can no longer spend $1 on a McChicken to justify hanging out in the McDonald’s dining area for hours. But as the Atlantic piece explains, the dwindling of places to be... See more
Matter
Third places offer the most reliable forms of friendship. There's this Chinese proverb, "A humble friend in the same village is better than 16 influential brothers in the royal palace." Basically it's saying that one of the most important characteristics that friends can possess is availability. Third places make friendship easy, and when we lose
... See moreMina Le • third places, stanley cup mania, and the epidemic of loneliness
After all, cities are where people are supposed to have serendipitous encounters—as the writer and critic Jane Jacobs said, “The metropolis provides what otherwise could be given only by traveling; namely, the strange.” By comparison, the cliché goes, people become more atomized the farther they move from urban environments into the clinical, safe,... See more
Allie Conti • We Really Should Hang Out More Often
With TV, we at least understood ourselves to be passive observers of the screen, but the interactive nature of the internet fostered the illusion that message boards, Discord servers, and Twitter feeds are digital “places” where we can in fact hang out. If nothing else, this is a trick that gets us to stick around longer. A better analogy for
... See moreDrew Austin • It's Time to Lie Down and Be Counted
From the same book, replace TV with the 'gram and and house with business/shopping locale this quote still bangs:
"The American house has been TV-centered for three generations. It is the focus of family life, and the life of the house correspondingly turns inward, away from whatever corresponds beyond its four walls. At the same time, the
... See moreBlackbird Spyplane • Too many places are STERILE and TORCHED — let’s make them COOL and FUNKY
we exist in a new context now, after a long decade of global homogenization and the Uberification of life. A global pandemic causes simulation to crash or at least to reveal itself, forcing us to search for new identities, new communities, and new ideals