why third spaces are sacred

what if public libraries were open late every night and we could engage in public life there instead of having to choose between drinking at the bar and domestic isolation

It’s true that walking through central London in 2024 can feel like navigating a bleak, postmodern satire of the thrills of urban spontaneity: ballpit bars and escape rooms for contrived office socials; expensive, ticketed mega-events; and security guards cosplaying as cops, moving civilians on from heavily surveilled POPS, or privately-owned publi

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That said: “Cities, while they’re good for economic opportunity, are not good for community. I have felt, at times, especially during my first two years in NY, tremendous bouts of loneliness. It was really hard for me to meet people. In order to go hang out with friends tonight, I have to take a 40-minute subway ride. It’s bizarre how you can walk ... See more

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

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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 tele

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A symbiotic relationship has been created between some brands and some cities, as in the case of Bulgari with Rome or Campari with Milan, celebrating a foundation or affinity cultivated over time. The city is a canvas, an inspiration, a mirror in which brands can reflect themselves, from which they can draw content and imagery and to which they can... See more

these days, the art of hanging out seems to be waning in cities.

Part of the reason for the shift is that over the course of the 20th century, leisure started to become privatized. Rich Heyman, an American studies professor at the University of Texas told "The Atlantic" that, "As living conditions improved, people chose to sit with their nuclear families in front of televisions." But I guess

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